Tolerogenic Donor-Derived Dendritic Cells Risk Sensitization In Vivo owing to Processing and Presentation by Recipient APCs.

Modification of allogeneic dendritic cells (DCs) through drug treatment results in DCs with in vitro hallmarks of tolerogenicity. Despite these observations, using murine MHC-mismatched skin and heart transplant models, donor-derived drug-modified DCs not only failed to induce tolerance but also accelerated graft rejection. The latter was inhibited by injecting the recipient with anti-CD8 Ab, which removed both CD8(+) T cells and CD8(+) DCs. The discrepancy between in vitro and in vivo data could be explained, partly, by the presentation of drug-modified donor DC MHC alloantigens by recipient APCs and activation of recipient T cells with indirect allospecificity, leading to the induction of alloantibodies. Furthermore, allogeneic MHC molecules expressed by drug-treated DCs were rapidly processed and presented in peptide form by recipient APCs in vivo within hours of DC injection. Using TCR-transgenic T cells, Ag presentation of injected OVA-pulsed DCs was detectable for ≤ 3 d, whereas indirect presentation of MHC alloantigen by recipient APCs led to activation of T cells within 14 h and was partially inhibited by reducing the numbers of CD8(+) DCs in vivo. In support of this observation when mice lacking CD8(+) DCs were pretreated with drug-modified DCs prior to transplantation, skin graft rejection kinetics were similar to those in non-DC-treated controls. Of interest, when the same mice were treated with anti-CD40L blockade plus drug-modified DCs, skin graft survival was prolonged, suggesting endogenous DCs were responsible for T cell priming. Altogether, these findings highlight the risks and limitations of negative vaccination using alloantigen-bearing "tolerogenic" DCs.

Development of an Escherichia coli expressing listeriolysin-O vaccine against Wilms tumor gene 1-expressing tumors.

Through their ability to induce cytotoxic T-lymphocytes and inhibit Foxp3 T-regulatory cells, Escherichia coli expressing listeriolysin-O (LLO) and a model tumor antigen have been shown to exert strong antitumor activity. The aim of this study is to extend these observations to a self-protein and clinically relevant tumor antigen associated with most types of adult leukemia: Wilms tumor gene 1 (WT1). We demonstrate that an E. coli coexpressing LLO and WT1 is capable of inducing a strong antitumor effect against WT1-expressing tumors in vivo through its ability to induce cytotoxic T-lymphocytes and inhibit the function of Foxp3 T-regulatory cells. Furthermore, we have characterized the immunodominant epitope involved in this effect (NAPYLPSCL) and demonstrated that coinjection of NAPYLPSCL with E. coli-LLO resulted in an antitumor effect largely equivalent to that obtained with E. coli-LLO/WT1. Our data demonstrate that the results obtained with a clinically irrelevant model tumor antigen remain valid with a "real" tumor antigen and that the adjuvant properties of the E. coli-LLO vaccine can be exploited in conjunction with peptides. The results obtained in this study will facilitate the translation of this work to human studies by combining antigenic motifs relevant to specific human leukocyte antigen haplotypes with the adjuvant effect of E. coli-LLO.