Publication
A Mathematical Description of the Bone Marrow Dynamics of CAR T-Cell Therapy in B-cell Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
A. Martínez-Rubio, S. Chulián, C. Blázquez Goñi, A. Pérez Martínez, M. Ramírez Orellana, A. Navarro-Zapata, C. Ferreras, V.M. Pérez-García, M. Rosa
International J. of Molecular Sciences 22, 6371 (2021)
MOLAB authors
Pérez García, Victor M.. Martínez Rubio, Álvaro.  Rosa Durán, María. Chulián García, Salvador. Blazquez Goñi, Cristina. 
Abstract
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has demonstrated high rates of response in recurrent B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in children and young adults. Despite this success, a fraction of patients experience relapse after treatment. Relapse is often preceded by recovery of healthy B cells, which suggests loss or dysfunction of CAR T cells in bone marrow. This site is harder to access, and thus is not monitored as frequently as peripheral blood. Understanding the interplay between B cells, leukemic cells and CAR T cells in bone marrow is paramount in ascertaining the causes of lack of response. In this paper, we put forward a mathematical model representing the interaction between constantly renewing B cells, CAR T cells and leukemic cells in the bone marrow. Our model accounts for the maturation dynamics of B cells and incorporates effector and memory CAR T cells. The model provides a plausible description of the dynamics of the various cellular compartments in bone marrow after CAR T infusion. After exploration of the parameter space, we found that the dynamics of CAR T product and disease were independent of the dose injected, initial B-cell load and tumor burden. We also show theoretically the importance of CAR T product attributes in determining therapy outcome, and have studied a variety of possible response scenarios, including second dosage schemes. We conclude by setting out ideas for the refinement of the model.