Positive conversion of negative signaling of CTLA4 potentiates antitumor efficacy of adoptive T-cell therapy in murine tumor models.

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA4) has been known to be a strong tolerance-inducing inhibitory receptor on T-cell surface. Systemic blocking of CTLA4 function with blocking antibodies has been regarded as an attractive strategy to enhance antitumor immunity. However, this strategy accompanies systemic autoimmune side effects that are sometimes problematic. Therefore, we developed a novel CTLA4 mutant that could be expressed in tumor antigen-specific T cells to enhance antitumor effect without systemic autoimmunity. This mutant, named CTLA4-CD28 chimera, consists of extracellular and transmembrane domains of CTLA4, linked with cytoplasmic CD28 domain. Overexpression of CTLA4-CD28 chimera in T cells delivered stimulatory signals rather than inhibitory signals of CTLA4 and significantly enhanced T-cell reactivity. Although this effect was observed in both CD4 and CD8 T cells, the effect on CD4 T cells was predominant. CTLA4-CD28 chimera gene modification of CD4 T cells significantly enhanced antitumor effect of unmodified CD8 T cells. Nonetheless, the gene modification of CD8 T cells along with CD4 T cells further maximized antitumor effect of T cells in 2 different murine tumor models. Thus, CTLA4-CD28 chimera gene modification of both tumor antigen-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells would be an ideal way of modulating CTLA4 function to enhance tumor-specific T-cell reactivity.

The development of the conditionally replication-competent adenovirus: replacement of E4 orf1-4 region by exogenous gene.

BACKGROUND: Tumor or tissue specific replicative adenovirus armed with a therapeutic gene has shown a promising anti-cancer therapeutic modality. However, because the genomic packaging capacity is constrained, only a few places inside it are available for transgene insertion. In the present study, we introduce a novel strategy utilizing the early E4 region for the insertion of therapeutic gene(s). METHODS: We constructed the conditionally replication-competent adenovirus (CRAd), Ad5E4(mRFP) by: (i) replacing the E4/E1a promoter by the prostate-specific enhancer element; (ii) inserting mRFP inside the E4orf1-4 deletion region; and (iii) sub-cloning enhanced green fluorescent protein controlled by cytomegalovirus promoter in the left end of the viral genome. Subsequently, we evaluated its replication abilities and killing activities in vitro, as well as its in vivo anti-tumor efficacy in CWR22rv xenografts. RESULTS: When infected with Ad5E4(mRFP), the number and intensity of the mRFP gene products increased in a prostate cancer cell-specific manner as designed, suggesting that the mRFP gene and E4orfs other than E4orf1-4 were well synthesized from one transcript via alternative splicing as the recombinant adenovirus replicated. As expected from the confirmed virus replication capability, Ad5E4(mRFP) induced cell lysis as potent as the wild-type adenovirus and effectively suppressed tumor growth when tested in the CWR22rv xenografts in nude mice. Furthermore, Ad5E4(endo/angio) harboring an endostatin-angiostatin gene in E4orf1-4 was able to enhance CRAd by replacing mRFP with a therapeutic gene. CONCLUSIONS: The approach employed in the present study for the insertion of a therapeutic transgene in CRAd should facilitate the construction of CRAd containing multiple therapeutic genes in the viral genome that may have the potential to serve as highly potent cancer therapeutic reagents.