Protective immunosurveillance and therapeutic antitumor activity of γδ T cells demonstrated in a mouse model of prostate cancer

Z Liu, IEA Eltoum, B Guo, BH Beck… - The Journal of …, 2008 - journals.aai.org
Z Liu, IEA Eltoum, B Guo, BH Beck, GA Cloud, RD Lopez
The Journal of Immunology, 2008journals.aai.org
In contrast to Ag-specific αβ T cells, γδ T cells can kill malignantly transformed cells in a
manner that does not require the recognition of tumor-specific Ags. Although such
observations have contributed to the emerging view that γδ T cells provide protective innate
immunosurveillance against certain malignancies, particularly those of epithelial origin, they
also provide a rationale for developing novel clinical approaches to exploit the innate
antitumor properties of γδ T cells for the treatment of cancer. Using TRAMP, a transgenic …
Abstract
In contrast to Ag-specific αβ T cells, γδ T cells can kill malignantly transformed cells in a manner that does not require the recognition of tumor-specific Ags. Although such observations have contributed to the emerging view that γδ T cells provide protective innate immunosurveillance against certain malignancies, particularly those of epithelial origin, they also provide a rationale for developing novel clinical approaches to exploit the innate antitumor properties of γδ T cells for the treatment of cancer. Using TRAMP, a transgenic mouse model of prostate cancer, proof-of-concept studies were performed to first establish that γδ T cells can indeed provide protective immunosurveillance against spontaneously arising mouse prostate cancer. TRAMP mice, which predictably develop prostate adenocarcinoma, were backcrossed with γδ T cell-deficient mice (TCRδ−/− mice) yielding TRAMP× TCRδ−/− mice, a proportion of which developed more extensive disease compared with control TRAMP mice. By extension, these findings were then used as a rationale for developing an adoptive immunotherapy model for treating prostate cancer. Using TRAMP-C2 cells derived from TRAMP mice (C57BL/6 genetic background), disease was first established in otherwise healthy wild-type C57BL/6 mice. In models of localized and disseminated disease, tumor-bearing mice treated iv with supraphysiological numbers of syngeneic γδ T cells (C57BL/6-derived) developed measurably less disease compared with untreated mice. Disease-bearing mice treated iv with γδ T cells also displayed superior survival compared with untreated mice. These findings provide a biological rationale for clinical trials designed to adoptively transfer ex vivo expanded autologous γδ T cells for the treatment of prostate cancer.
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