Transfer of in vitro-expanded naïve T cells after lymphodepletion enhances antitumor immunity through the induction of polyclonal antitumor effector T cells.

oleh: Tomohiro Tanaka, Satoshi Watanabe, Miho Takahashi, Ko Sato, Yu Saida, Junko Baba, Masashi Arita, Miyuki Sato, Aya Ohtsubo, Satoshi Shoji, Koichiro Nozaki, Kosuke Ichikawa, Rie Kondo, Nobumasa Aoki, Yasuyoshi Ohshima, Takuro Sakagami, Tetsuya Abe, Hiroshi Moro, Toshiyuki Koya, Junta Tanaka, Hiroshi Kagamu, Hirohisa Yoshizawa, Toshiaki Kikuchi

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2017-01-01

Deskripsi

The adoptive transfer of effector T cells combined with lymphodepletion has demonstrated promising antitumor effects in mice and humans, although the availability of tumor-specific T cells is limited. We and others have also demonstrated that the transfer of polyclonal naïve T cells induces tumor-specific effector T cells and enhances antitumor immunity after lymphodepletion. Because tumors have been demonstrated to induce immunosuppressive networks and regulate the function of T cells, obtaining a sufficient number of fully functional naïve T cells that are able to differentiate into tumor-specific effector T cells remains difficult. To establish culture methods to obtain a large number of polyclonal T cells that are capable of differentiating into tumor-specific effector T cells, naïve T cells were activated with anti-CD3 mAbs in vitro. These cells were stimulated with IL-2 and IL-7 for the CD8 subset or with IL-7 and IL-23 for the CD4 subset. Transfer of these hyperexpanded T cells after lymphodepletion showed significant antitumor efficacy, and tumor-specific effector T cells were primed from these expanded T cells in tumor-bearing hosts. Moreover, these ex vivo-expanded T cells maintained T cell receptor diversity and showed long-term persistence of memory against specific tumors. Further analyses revealed that combination therapy consisting of vaccination with dendritic cells that were co-cultured with irradiated whole tumor cells and the transfer of ex vivo-expanded T cells significantly enhanced antitumor immunity. These results indicate that the transfer of ex vivo-expanded polyclonal T cells can be combined with other immunotherapies and augment antitumor effects.