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From the * Ontario Cancer Institute, Department of Medical Biophysics and Department of
Immunology, University of Toronto, Ontario M5G 2M9, Canada; Induction and maintenance of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activity specific for a primary
endogenous tumor was investigated in vivo. The simian virus 40 T antigen (Tag) expressed under the control of the rat insulin promoter (RIP) induced pancreatic
Department of Biochemistry and
Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143-0534; and § Institute for
Experimental Immunology, University Hospital of Zürich, CH-8091 Zürich, Switzerland
-cell tumors producing
insulin, causing progressive hypoglycemia. As an endogenous tumor antigen, the lymphocytic
choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) glycoprotein (GP) was introduced also under the control of
the RIP. No significant spontaneous CTL activation against GP was observed. However,
LCMV infection induced an antitumor CTL response which efficiently reduced the tumor
mass, resulting in temporarily normalized blood glucose levels and prolonged survival of double
transgenic RIP(GP × Tag2) mice (137 ± 18 d) as opposed to control RIP-Tag2 mice (88 ± 8 d).
Surprisingly, the tumor-specific CTL response was not sustained despite the facts that the tumor cells continued to express MHC class I and LCMV-GP-specific CTLs were present and
not tolerized. Subsequent adoptive transfer of virus activated spleen cells into RIP(GP × Tag2)
mice further prolonged survival (168 ± 11 d), demonstrating continued expression of the
LCMV-GP tumor antigen and MHC class I. The data show that the tumor did not spontaneously induce or maintain an activated CTL response, revealing a profound lack of immunogenicity in vivo. Therefore, repetitive immunizations are necessary for prolonged antitumor immunotherapy. In addition, the data suggest that the risk for induction of chronic autoimmune
diseases is limited, which may encourage immunotherapy against antigens selectively but not
exclusively expressed by the tumor.
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