T cell margination: investigating the detour of T cells following forimtamig treatment in humanized mice

  • MAbs. 2025 Dec;17(1):2440578. doi: 10.1080/19420862.2024.2440578.
Nils O'Brien  1 Joerg P J Mueller  1 Ann-Marie E Bröske  1 Jan Attig  1 Franz Osl  1 Cylia Crisand  1 Ann-Katrin Wolf  1 Richard Rae  1 Stefanie Lechner  1 Thomas Pöschinger  1 Christian Klein  2 Pablo Umaña  2 Sara Colombetti  2 Andreas Beilhack  3 Jan Eckmann  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Roche Innovation Center Munich, Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Penzberg, Germany.
  • 2. Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Schlieren, Switzerland.
  • 3. Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research Laboratory (IZKF) Würzburg, Department of Internal Medicine II, Center for Experimental Molecular Medicine, Würzburg University Hospital, Würzburg, Germany.
Abstract

T cell bispecific antibodies (TCBs) are a promising new class of therapeutics for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. A frequently observed, yet incompletely understood effect of this treatment is the transient reduction of circulating T cell counts, also known as T cell margination (TCM). After administration of the GPRC5D-targeting TCB forimtamig (RG6234), TCM occurred in patients and correlated with cytokine release and soluble B cell maturation antigen decrease. We demonstrate that TCM is accurately represented in the humanized NSG mouse model and occurs at a lower threshold of target expression than systemic cytokine release. Application of whole-mouse tissue clearing and 3D imaging revealed that T cells accumulate in the bone marrow after treatment. We hypothesize that low amounts of targets are sufficient to rapidly redirect T cells upon TCB engagement. Therefore, we propose TCM as a beneficial, highly sensitive and early effect of forimtamig that leads T cells to likely sites of bone marrow tumor lesions.

Keywords
BsAb; LSFM; T cell engager; TCB; cytokines; margination; multiple myeloma.
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