Transcriptional and epigenetic regulators of human CD8+ T cell function identified through orthogonal CRISPR screens

Transcriptional and epigenetic regulators of human CD8+ T cell function identified through orthogonal CRISPR screens

Sean R McCutcheon, Adam M Swartz, Michael C Brown, Alejandro Barrera, Christian McRoberts Amador, Keith Siklenka, Lucas Humayun, Maria A Ter Weele, James M Isaacs, Timothy E Reddy, Andrew S Allen, Smita K Nair, Scott J Antonia, Charles A Gersbach

Clinical response to adoptive T cell therapies is associated with the transcriptional and epigenetic state of the cell product. Thus, discovery of regulators of T cell gene networks and their corresponding phenotypes has potential to improve T cell therapies. Here we developed pooled, epigenetic CRISPR screening approaches to systematically profile the effects of activating or repressing 120 transcriptional and epigenetic regulators on human CD8+ T cell state. We found that BATF3 overexpression promoted specific features of memory T cells and attenuated gene programs associated with cytotoxicity, regulatory T cell function, and exhaustion. Upon chronic antigen stimulation, BATF3 overexpression countered phenotypic and epigenetic signatures of T cell exhaustion. Moreover, BATF3 enhanced the potency of CAR T cells in both in vitro and in vivo tumor models and programmed a transcriptional profile that correlates with positive clinical response to adoptive T cell therapy. Finally, we performed CRISPR knockout screens that defined cofactors and downstream mediators of the BATF3 gene network.