Oncolytic attenuated measles virus encoding NY-ESO-1 induces HLA I and II presentation of this tumor antigen by melanoma and dendritic cells.

Antitumor virotherapy stimulates the antitumor immune response during tumor cell lysis induced by oncolytic viruses (OVs). OV can be modified to express additional transgenes that enhance their therapeutic potential. In this study, we armed the spontaneously oncolytic Schwarz strain of measles viruses (MVs) with the gene encoding the cancer/testis antigen NY-ESO-1 to obtain MVny. We compared MV and MVny oncolytic activity and ability to induce NY-ESO-1 expression in six human melanoma cell lines. After MVny infection, we measured the capacity of melanoma cells to present NY-ESO-1 peptides to CD4 + and CD8 + T cell clones specific for this antigen. We assessed the ability of MVny to induce NY-ESO-1 expression and presentation in monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs). Our results show that MVny and MV oncolytic activity are similar with a faster cell lysis induced by MVny. We also observed that melanoma cell lines and DC expressed the NY-ESO-1 protein after MVny infection. In addition, MVny-infected melanoma cells and DCs were able to stimulate NY-ESO-1-specific CD4 + and CD8 + T cells. Finally, MVny was able to induce DC maturation. Altogether, these results show that MVny could be an interesting candidate to stimulate NY-ESO-1-specific T cells in melanoma patients with NY-ESO-1-expressing tumor cells.

Interplay between oncolytic measles virus, macrophages and cancer cells induces a proinflammatory tumor microenvironment.

Attenuated measles virus (MV) exerts its oncolytic activity in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) cells that lack type-I interferon (IFN-I) production or responsiveness. However, other cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME), such as myeloid cells, possess functional antiviral pathways. In this study, we aimed to characterize the interplay between MV and the myeloid cells in human MPM. We cocultured MPM cell lines with monocytes or macrophages and infected them with MV. We analyzed the transcriptome of each cell type and studied their secretion and phenotypes by high-dimensional flow cytometry. We also measured transgene expression using an MV encoding GFP (MV-GFP). We show that MPM cells drive the differentiation of monocytes into M2-like macrophages. These macrophages inhibit GFP expression in tumor cells harboring a defect in IFN-I production and a functional signaling downstream of the IFN-I receptor, while having minimal effects on GFP expression in tumor cells with defect of responsiveness to IFN-I. Interestingly, inhibition of the IFN-I signaling by ruxolitinib restores GFP expression in tumor cells. Upon MV infection, cocultured macrophages express antiviral pro-inflammatory genes and induce the expression of IFN-stimulated genes in tumor cells. MV also increases the expression of HLA and costimulatory molecules on macrophages and their phagocytic activity. Finally, MV induces the secretion of inflammatory cytokines, especially IFN-I, and PD-L1 expression in tumor cells and macrophages. These results show that macrophages reduce viral proteins expression in some MPM cell lines through their IFN-I production and generate a pro-inflammatory interplay that may stimulate the patient's anti-tumor immune response.

Homozygous Co-Deletion of Type I Interferons and CDKN2A Genes in Thoracic Cancers: Potential Consequences for Therapy.

Homozygous deletion (HD) of the tumor suppressor gene CDKN2A is the most frequent genetic alteration in malignant pleural mesothelioma and is also frequent in non-small cell lung cancers. This HD is often accompanied by the HD of the type I interferons (IFN I) genes that are located closed to the CDKN2A gene on the p21.3 region of chromosome 9. IFN I genes encode sixteen cytokines (IFN-α, IFN-߅) that are implicated in cellular antiviral and antitumor defense and in the induction of the immune response. In this review, we discuss the potential influence of IFN I genes HD on thoracic cancers therapy and speak in favor of better taking these HD into account in patients monitoring.

High Oncolytic Activity of a Double-Deleted Vaccinia Virus Copenhagen Strain against Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a cancer of the pleura that lacks efficient treatment. Oncolytic immunotherapy using oncolytic vaccinia virus (VV) may represent an alternative therapeutic approach for the treatment of this malignancy. Here, we studied the oncolytic activity of VV thymidine kinase (TK)-ribonucleotide reductase (RR)-/green fluorescent protein (GFP) against MPM. This virus is a VV from the Copenhagen strain that is deleted of two genes encoding the TK (J2R) and the RR (I4L) and that express the GFP. First, we show in vitro that VVTK-RR-/GFP efficiently infects and kills the twenty-two human MPM cell lines used in this study. We also show that the virus replicates in all eight tested MPM cell lines, however, with approximately a 10-fold difference in the amplification level from one cell line to another. Then, we studied the therapeutic efficiency of VVTK-RR-/GFP in non-obese diabetic (NOD) severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice that bear peritoneal human MPM tumors. One intraperitoneal infection of VVTK-RR-/GFP reduces the tumor burden and significantly increases mice survival compared to untreated animals. Thus, VVTK-RR - may be a promising oncolytic virus (OV) for the oncolytic immunotherapy of MPM.

Frequent Homozygous Deletions of Type I Interferon Genes in Pleural Mesothelioma Confer Sensitivity to Oncolytic Measles Virus.

INTRODUCTION: Oncolytic immunotherapy is based on the use of nonpathogenic replicative oncolytic viruses that infect and kill tumor cells exclusively. Recently, we found that the spontaneous oncolytic activity of the Schwarz strain of measles virus (MV) against human malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) depends on defects in the antiviral type I interferon (IFN-I) response in tumor cells. METHODS: In this study, we studied three independent human MPM bio-collections to identify the defects in the IFN-I responses in tumor cells. RESULTS: We show that the most frequent defect is the homozygous deletions (HDs) of all the 14 IFN-I genes (IFN-α and IFN-ß) that we found in more than half of MV-sensitive MPM cell lines. These HDs occur together with the HDs of the tumor suppressor gene CDKN2A also located in the 9p21.3 chromosome region. Therefore, the IFN-I-/- MPM cell lines develop a partial and weak IFN-I response when they are exposed to the virus compared with that of normal cells and MV-resistant MPM cell lines. This response consists of the expression of a restricted number of IFN-stimulated genes that do not depend on the presence of IFN-I. In addition, the IFN-I-/- MPM cell lines infected by MV also develop a pro-inflammatory response associated with stress of the endoplasmic reticulum. CONCLUSION: Our study emphasizes the link between HDs of IFN-I encoding genes and the CDKN2A gene in MPM and sensitivity to MV oncolytic immunotherapy.