Many patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) large B cell lymphoma respond well to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy targeting CD19. Still, most do not have a durable response, highlighting a need to understand the underlying resistance mechanisms. To address this issue, researchers led by Qing Deng, Ph.D., Michael Green, Ph.D., and Xubin Li, Ph.D., used single-cell RNA sequencing to establish a large dataset of CAR T cells to treat 59 patients with R/R large B cell lymphoma.
To show the utility of this dataset, the researchers used it to identify characteristics of CAR T cells among the patient population at three-month follow-up. The results showed a higher expression of genes from the glycolysis pathway in patients who achieved a complete response compared to those who did not.