Fig. 6: Enhanced activity of IL-12-armored ICAM-1-specific CAR-T cells in an anaplastic thyroid cancer model.

a Lentiviral vectors encoding F292A and F292A-iIL-12 CARs. b–g NSG mice were inoculated with 1 × 10⁶ 8505C cells subcutaneously and treated 5 days later with 1 × 10⁷ F292A or F292A-iIL-12 CAR-T cells by intravenous injection or left untreated (No T). b Representative bioluminescence images (n = 4 mice/group). c–e, Tumor volume measurements for individual mice (c), average whole-body BLI kinetics (d), and Kaplan–Meier survival curve (e). No T, n = 10 mice examined over 4 independent experiments; F292A, n = 10 mice examined over 4 independent experiments (4 donors); F292A-iIL-12, n = 16 mice examined over 4 independent experiments (4 donors). Data are shown as individual values (c) and the mean ± SD (d). P values were determined by Two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test in d and log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test in e. f PET-CT images showing CAR-T cell expansion and localization in vivo. Subcutaneous tumors are indicated by white arrow heads. n = 1 mouse/group. g Cytokine levels in mouse plasma measured at indicated timepoints post T cell injection. Data represent mean ± SD. Data represent mean ± SD of 4 mice for No T and F292A cohorts, and of 5 biologically independent mice for F292A-iIL-12 examined over 2 independent experiments (2 donors). Statistical annotations reflect differences between F292A and F292A-iIL-12 determined by unpaired, two-tailed Student’s t-test.