Anti-metastatic vaccination of tumor-bearing mice with il-2-gene-inserted tumor cells

✍ Scribed by Angel Porgador; Bernd Gansbacher; Rajat Bannerji; Esther Tzehoval; Eli Gilboa; Michael Feldman; Lea Eisenbach

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 830 KB
• Volume: 53
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910530320

✦ Synopsis

IL-2 gene was introduced through retroviral vectors into the highly malignant and poorly immunogenic 3LL-D I22 clone. Both high and low D 122-IL-2 secretors showed elimination of tumorigenicity in syngeneic immune-competent mice; however, in nude mice only the high IL-2 secretor showed reduced tumorigenicity as compared with parental D I22 cells. Also, following intravenous inoculation, only the high IL-2 secretor showed reduced generation of metastases, whereas the low IL-2 secretors were as highly metastatic as parental cells. These results seem to indicate that low levels of IL-2 secreted by tumor cells are sufficient to activate T cells, while higher levels are needed in order to activate non-T-cell effectors. D 122-IL-2 secretors induced high levels of anti-tumor CTL, while their sensitivity to the lytic activity of these CTL was similar to the sensitivity of D122 cells, thus indicating that the elevation of immunogenicity of IL-2 secretors was essentially d.ue to the secreted IL-2. In accordance with CTL induction, pre-immunization with IL-2 secretors protected mice against subsequent challenge of parental cells. Moreover, immunization in an "immunotherapy protocol" i.e., vaccination of mice carrying an established tumor of parental D 122 cells with inactivated D 122-1l.2 infectants, almost completely eliminated the generation of lung metastases by D I22 cells, thus providing a rationale for the use of IL-2 gene transferred tumor cells as a modality for treatment of metastasis.