Engineered endothelial cell grafts form functional anastomoses and enable recruitment of intravenously delivered human T cells in CAM tumor models

Abstract

The development of cancer immunotherapies requires preclinical models that capture intravenous delivery, immune cell recruitment and intratumoral T cell activation. Conventional 3D in vitro systems lack perfused vascular networks, whereas mouse models are limited by throughput. The chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay enables rapid growth of vascularized tumors derived from human cancer cells in ovo, but its application to human T cell-based immunotherapy testing is constrained by CAM-derived vascularization and species-specific barriers between human immune cells and avian endothelium. Here, we establish an endothelial graft-enhanced CAM tumor model that incorporates an immortalized murine endothelial cell line capable of anastomosing with the chick vasculature. This generates a perfused and branched mammalian vascular interface within human tumor xenografts growing on the CAM. Human ICAM-1 expression on the grafted endothelial cells further enhances recruitment of intravenously delivered human T cells into CAM tumors. Using this platform, we demonstrate target-dependent intratumoral T cell activation by bispecific T cell engagers (TCEs) across tumor models, including evaluation of the clinically approved DLL3-targeting TCE tarlatamab in small cell lung cancer models.