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Immunology |
1 INSERM, U601, Cancerology Research Department, Nantes, France and 2 Pasteur Institut, CNRS, URA3015, Viral Genomics and Vaccination Laboratory, Paris, France
Requests for reprints: Marc Gregoire, Institut de Biologie, Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, U601, 9 quai Moncousu, 44093 Nantes Cedex 01, France. Phone: 33-2-40-08-41-50; Fax: 33-2-40-08-40-82; E-mail: marc.gregoire{at}nantes.inserm.fr.
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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During the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in oncovirotherapy (i.e., the use of replicating viruses for cancer treatment). Numerous live-attenuated viruses, such as adenovirus (AdV), vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), Newcastle disease virus, vaccinia viruses, and measles virus (MV), are now considered as potential cancer therapeutics (3, 4). Among them, MV has already shown promising oncolytic properties (5). MV is an enveloped, nonsegmented, and negative single-strand RNA virus belonging to the Morbillivirus genus of the Paramyxoviridae family (6). Live-attenuated MV vaccines, such as the Schwarz strain, were derived from a clinical isolate by extensive passages through culture of chicken embryo fibroblasts (7). This vaccine has been administered to hundreds of millions of children since the 1970s and is considered as one of the most effective and safe human vaccines. Furthermore, the MV genome is very stable and the reversion of vaccine strains to pathogenic forms has never been observed.
Apart from its excellent safety profile, Edmonston-derived MV vaccine strains efficiently kill a clinically significant fraction of tumoral cells by direct cytolysis, leaving neighboring healthy tissue unharmed (8). Indeed, several in vitro studies have already shown that live-attenuated MV is selectively oncolytic, causing the formation of extensive multinucleated syncytia and killing a variety of human tumor cells, such as lymphoma (9), multiple myeloma (10), glioblastoma (11), and ovarian carcinoma (12) cell lines. Moreover, in vivo administration of the MV Edmonston strain resulted in either slower growth or even partial regression of tumors established in experimental models of lymphoma and myeloma cancers (9, 10). Another important component of the long-term therapeutic benefit of oncolytic viruses seems to rely on their capacity to trigger an autologous antitumoral immune response, as previously described for another paramyxovirus VSV (13, 14). Hence, both mechanisms could be implicated in spontaneous clinical remission previously observed in cancer patients naturally infected with MV (15–17). However, relatively little attention has been paid thus far to the role of MV-based virotherapy in the activation of antitumoral immunity (18).
In the present study, we investigated both the oncolytic activity and immunoadjuvant properties of Schwarz measles vaccine on a panel of MPM cells isolated from pleural effusions of mesothelioma patients. We used a cloned Schwarz MV produced from an infectious cDNA that we have previously described (19, 20). We analyzed infection susceptibility and cytolytic activity on both tumoral and nontransformed mesothelial cells. We observed that MPM tumor cells are more susceptible than nontransformed mesothelial cells to MV infection. The increased susceptibility of MPM cells to MV infection was assessed by the analysis of cell surface expression of the MV vaccine receptor (CD46). We also evaluated whether MV infection of mesothelioma cells could elicit an autologous immune response specific for a tumor-associated antigen (TAA), namely, mesothelin (MSLN). MSLN is a differentiation antigen that is abundantly expressed in normal mesothelial cells, from which malignant mesothelioma arises. Among MPM-associated antigens, MSLN seems as a promising target for immunotherapy (21). To determine whether MV could induce cellular immunity to MSLN, we cocultivated human primary monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DC) with MV-infected mesothelioma cells and analyzed the phagocytic properties of DCs, their activation surface phenotype and cytokine secretion profile, as well as their functional capacity to stimulate MSLN-specific CD8 T cells. We showed that phagocytosis of apoptotic MV-infected mesothelioma cells induced spontaneous DC maturation and activation, as evidenced by an increased expression of MHC and costimulatory molecules, the production of proinflammatory cytokines with Th1 polarizing capacities, and a significant amplification of MSLN-specific CD8 T cells.
| Materials and Methods |
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MV production. Attenuated Schwarz MV was produced from the pTM-MVSchw plasmid using the helper cell–based rescue system described by Radecke and colleagues (22) and modified by Parks and colleagues (20). Recombinant MV-enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) virus was similarly rescued from the pTM-MV-eGFP plasmid, as previously described (19). Syncytia that appeared after coculture of helper cells with Vero cells were expanded on Vero cells in DMEM-5% FCS. When syncytia reached 80% to 90% confluence, the cells were scraped into a small volume of Opti-MEM (Invitrogen) and freeze thawed once. After low-speed centrifugation to pellet cellular debris, the virus-containing supernatant was stored at –80°C. Viral titer was determined by an end point limit dilution assay on Vero cells. The TCID50 was calculated by the use of the Kärber method.
Apoptosis detection. Apoptosis was triggered by UVB exposure (312 nm-25 kJ/m2) using an UV Stratalinker 2400 (Stratagene Europe) or by virus infection [multiplicity of infection (MOI), 1.0] with MV Schwarz strain. Cell death was evidenced by 15-min staining at room temperature using FITC-conjugated Annexin V labeling kit (5 µL per 105 cells) according to the manufacturer's instructions (BD Biosciences).
Reverse transcription-PCR. Confluent M13 cells were infected with MV Schwarz strain (MOI, 1.0), and cell pellets were collected at different times after infection. Total cell RNA was extracted using RNeasy kits (Qiagen) and reverse transcribed using Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen). Resulting cDNA were used as template for PCR amplification with primers specific for Toll-like receptor (TLR)-3, Mda-5, RIG-I, and PKR (Sigma). Gene-specific primer sets for β-actin were used as internal control of reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) experiments.
Intracellular HSP immunostaining. M13 tumoral cells were stressed by heat shock (1 h at 42°C) or virus infection (2 h at 37°C; MOI, 1.0) and stained as follows. Briefly, cells were first suspended in 100 µL of 4% paraformaldehyde fixation solution for 15 min at room temperature and then incubated with 100 µL of 1:100 diluted anti-HSP70 (clone SPA810) or anti-Gp96 (clone SPA850) antibodies (Stressgen) in PBS-0.1% bovine serum albumin (BSA)-0.1% saponin for 30 min at 4°C and finally with 100 µL of 1:250 diluted Alexa Fluor 488–conjugated F(ab')2 fragment goat anti-mouse IgG (H+L) antibodies (Molecular Probes) for an additional 30 min at 4°C.
Monocyte-derived DC production. Monocytes were generated from leukapheresis harvests of healthy donors (Etablissement Français du Sang) after obtaining informed consent. The monocyte-enriched fraction (>85% purity) was isolated by incubation with RosetteSep human monocyte enrichment cocktail (StemCell Technologies), following the manufacturer's instructions, and then separated by Ficoll density gradient centrifugation (PAA Laboratories). For DC preparation, 2 x 106 monocytes per mL were cultured in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 70 ng/mL of granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor and 50 ng/mL of interleukin (IL)-4 (AbCysSA).
DC loading and phagocytosis analysis. On day 5, immature DCs were collected from the monocyte culture supernatant and seeded into poly-HEMA–coated 12-well plates at 2 x 106 cells per mL. Because the harvest of both tumor cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from the same MPM patient proved to be difficult, an HLA-A2– allogeneic mesothelioma cell line (M13) was used for loading monocyte-derived DCs obtained from HLA-A2+ healthy donors. For subsequent loading, DCs were incubated with 1 x 106 cells per mL of apoptotic material obtained from UV-irradiated or MV-infected M13 tumoral cells (ratio, 2:1). DC phagocytosis was assessed both by flow cytometry and confocal laser microscopy, as previously described (23). Briefly, UV- or MV-treated M13 cells were labeled with PKH-26 membrane dye colorant according to the manufacturer's protocol (Sigma). After 24-h coculture, DCs were stained with FITC-conjugated anti–HLA-DR antibodies (Immunotech). After PBS washes, cells were harvested and analyzed either on a FACSCalibur (BD Biosciences) or with a TCS NT microscope (Leica Instruments). DCs that had ingested apoptotic cells were identified as HLA-DR+/PKH-26+ double-stained cells.
DC phenotype. DCs were cocultured with apoptotic UV-treated or MV-infected M13 cells for 18 h and the surface expression of DC maturation markers was next analyzed by three-color flow cytometry. Immunostaining was performed with a panel of monoclonal antibodies (all purchased from Immunotech) specific for HLA-ABC (clone B9.12.1), HLA-DR (clone B8.12.2), CD80 (clone MAB104), CD83 (clone HB15a), CD86 (clone HA5.2B7), and CD40 (clone MAB89). Briefly, DCs were incubated with each of the above antibodies (1 µg/mL) at 4°C for 30 min. The cytokine secretion pattern was assayed in supernatants collected 24 h after coculture. IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-6, IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor
(TNF
) concentrations were measured using commercially available BD Cytometric Beads Array (CBA) kits according to the manufacturer's protocol. The quantification of IFN
was performed with an ELISA test (BioSource).
In vitro T-cell sensitization. CD8 T lymphocytes were prepared from HLA-A0201 healthy donor PBMCs by positive selection with the MACS column system using the CD8 multisort kit (Miltenyi Biotec). Purified CD8 T cells (>90% purity) were stimulated with autologous DCs loaded with different apoptotic preparations or unloaded DCs as a control. Coculture was performed in round-bottomed 96-well plates (BD Falcon) by mixing 2 x 104 mature DCs with 2 x 105 responder T cells (ratio, 1:10) in 200 µL of 8% horse serum RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10 ng/mL IL-12 for the first 3 d (AbCysSA) and with 10 units/mL IL-2 (Proleukin, Chiron Therapeutics) for the following days. IL-2 was added every 2 to 3 d, allowing regular culture medium renewal. After 7 to 8 d of culture, T cells were harvested and stained with MSLN-specific tetramers.
Tetramer immunostaining. Target peptides MSLN531-539 (24) and MSLN541-550 (25) were initially identified by scanning the MSLN amino acid sequence (NP 005814) for matches to consensus motifs for HLA-A0201 binding using two computer algorithms, BIMAS and SYFPEITHI (Fig. 5A). MSLN-derived peptides (synthesis performed by Eurogentec) were used for monomer production (recombinant protein production platform, U601-IFR26, Nantes, France), as previously described (26). HLA-A2 VLP9 and KLL10 monomers were then oligomerized with phycoerythrin (PE)-labeled streptavidin (BD Biosciences). Staining and washing were performed in 0.1% BSA-PBS. T cells were stained successively with 10 µg/mL of PE-labeled pMHC multimers at 4°C for 30 min and with 1 µg/mL diluted PE-Cy5–conjugated anti-CD8 antibodies (clone RPA-T8; BD Biosciences) for an additional 30 min at 4°C. Cells were washed and immediately analyzed on a FACSCalibur.
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| Results |
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MV infection triggers danger signals in mesothelioma cells. Intracellular double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) production is a major sign of replication for many RNA viruses and a strong viral stimulus for pattern recognition receptors (PRR), such as TLRs or RIG-I–like receptors (28). MV infection has been previously shown to induce activation of specific PRR expression in lung epithelial cells (29). To assess the presence of viral nucleic acids in MV-infected MPM cells, we looked for the expression of TLR-3, Mda-5, RIG-I, and PKR genes by RT-PCR (the specific primers used are listed in Fig. 2A ). Attesting to the presence of viral genome replication intermediates, the expression levels of Mda-5, and to a lower extent RIG-I, were increased during the progression of infection in M13 epithelial cells, peaking at 48 to 72 h after infection (Fig. 2B). This result confirms the implication of Mda-5 (29, 30) and RIG-I (31) in MV-specific innate response. In contrast, we observed a progressive decline of TLR-3 and no change in PKR gene expression (Fig. 2B). Overall, these data indicate, although indirectly, that dsRNA is readily produced in MV-infected M13 mesothelioma cells.
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MV infection induces mesothelioma cell death. As shown above, MV Schwarz strain infection caused severe alterations in MPM cell culture, which finally led to cell death (CPE). To discriminate between apoptosis- and necrosis-mediated cell death, we used Annexin V staining. Our results evidenced that apoptosis was the mode of MV-induced cell death (Fig. 3A ). To follow the kinetic of mesothelioma cell killing, subconfluent monolayer M13 cell cultures were either MV infected (MOI, 1.0) or UV irradiated (25 kJ/m2) and the percentage of Annexin V–positive cells was determined at different time points (Fig. 3B). A significant rate of tumoral cell death (70–80% of Annexin V–positive cells) was observed during 24 h following UVB irradiation or 72 h after infection with MV vaccine. These M13 cell death–induced conditions were thus used in the following experiments, performed to show that virotherapy could lead to the activation of an autologous antitumor immune response.
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Apoptotic MV-infected mesothelioma cells induce DC maturation. Depending on the danger signal produced by dying cells and the PRR expression pattern of the phagocytic cells, the clearance of apoptotic cells can trigger an immune response from tolerance to immunity (34). We thus analyzed the DC maturation status following engulfment of killed MV-infected (MV-M13) or UV-irradiated (UV-M13) tumoral cells compared with direct infection by MV. Coculture was performed for 18 h at 37°C at a ratio of two DCs to one M13 cell (ratio, 2:1), and the phenotype of viable DCs was investigated by surface expression analysis of class I and II HLA molecules (Fig. 4A
) and costimulation molecules CD80, CD86, CD83, and CD40 (Fig. 4B). We also analyzed the pattern of cytokine secretion in coculture supernatants (Fig. 4C). Unloaded DCs (mock), otherwise treated similarly, were used as a negative control. As a maturation positive control, DCs were incubated with a synthetic analogue of viral dsRNA, poly(inosinic-cytidylic) acid [poly(I:C)], in association with a major cytokine produced in response to viral infection IFN
(I:C/IFN
).
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(Fig. 4A and B). In contrast, DCs pulsed with UV-irradiated apoptotic M13 cells display a similar activation profile to immature DCs (Fig. 4A and B), as we previously described (23). Spontaneous maturation of DCs coincubated with MV-infected apoptotic mesothelioma cells was evidenced by a significant up-regulated surface expression of the major maturation markers (P < 0.05, for CD80, CD83, CD86, CD40, and HLA-DR; Fig. 4A and B), associated with a relevant production of numerous proinflammatory cytokines (P < 0.05, for IL-6, IFN
, TNF
, and IL-1β; Fig. 4C). However, we noticed a slightly, but not significant, IL-12p70 secretion combined with no IL-10 production (Fig. 4C). Therefore, these results are rather in favor of the production of an inflammatory environment with Th1 polarizing capacities. The same spontaneous maturation was shown for DCs cocultured with several other apoptotic MV-infected MPM cells (as M11 and M61; data not shown), thus strengthening the significant increased immunogenicity of measles-infected tumor cells. We observed that the infection (Fig. 5A ) and replication (Fig. 5B) properties of the MV Schwarz strain in monocyte-derived DCs were greatly limited compared with those observed in mesothelioma M13 cells. This may be partly related to their respective CD46 expression level (Fig. 5C). We also observed a significant increase in virus amplification in DCs cocultured with MV-infected M13 tumor cells compared with DCs infected with MV (Fig. 5B). In addition, we did not evidence any modification of DC maturation status within 24 h following direct infection with the Schwarz vaccine (Fig. 4A and B). Therefore, the evolution of the DC phenotype observed early after 24 h of coculture with MV-infected mesothelioma cells might have been rather induced by the phagocytosis of infected MPM cells than by a direct infection of the DCs. However, we cannot exclude the possibility of a direct infection of a fraction of the DCs present in the coculture depending on their activation status.
DCs loaded with MV-infected M13 cells cross-prime MSLN-specific CD8 T cells. Our data strongly support an increased immunogenicity of MV-infected M13 tumoral cells, allowing spontaneous maturation of DCs. Consequently, DCs produce a cocktail of proinflammatory cytokines with related activities on the CD8 T-cell response. Therefore, we tested whether these different DC preparations differ in their abilities to stimulate CD8 T cells specific for MPM-associated tumor antigen, such as MSLN. To assess this question, tetramer immunostaining specific for two previously described MSLN-derived CD8 epitopes [i.e., MSLN531-539 (for HLA-A2 VLP9) and MSLN541-550 (for HLA-A2 KLL10)] was performed (Fig. 6A ). Purified CD8 T lymphocytes were sensitized for 1 week with autologous DCs unloaded or loaded with apoptotic material (UV-M13 or MV-M13 cells) but without any additional maturation agents.
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| Discussion |
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Although numerous studies have already established the potential efficiency of MV-based virotherapy for several cancers (3, 4), there is still no available information on the antineoplastic activity of the MV vaccine on mesothelioma cancer. Our study showed that MV Schwarz strain efficiently kills a significant fraction of tumoral cells, as we observed an important CPE on most MPM cell lines at 72 to 96 h after infection. The susceptibility of MPM cells to measles infection could be related to the natural tropism of MV for epithelial cells of the upper respiratory tract (6). As 70% to 80% of MPM cases belong to the epithelioid subtype (1), measles virotherapy could be particularly relevant in the treatment of this cancer. Moreover, we observed that MV Schwarz vaccine exerts a potent lytic activity on tumoral MPM cells but only minimal cytopathic damage to nontransformed Met5A cells. As well, the large multinucleated syncytia and cytotoxic killing observed in the tumoral cell cultures infected with the live-attenuated Edmonston MV strain were never seen in normal mesothelial cell primary cultures established from peritoneal dialysis of cancer-free patients (12). As tissue culture–adapted strains of MV display attenuated pathogenicity for healthy tissue and are simultaneously more lytic against tumoral tissue, some question arises about the potential mechanism(s) involved in this selective activity (8). Although MV wild-type strains preferentially use the signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (CDw150) as their cellular receptor (37), Edmonston-derived MV vaccine strains have evolved to also infect target cells via the membrane complement cofactor protein (CD46; ref. 38). Because of its role as a membrane regulatory protein of the complement activity, CD46 is frequently overexpressed by tumoral cell lines compared with their normal tissue counterparts (27). This may represent an immune escape mechanism for cancer cells to overcome complement lytic activity (39). Hence, this cell mutation acquired during neoplastic transformation is in favor of tumor development while paradoxically rendering the tumor more susceptible to infection and lysis by MV vaccine strains. As previously described for other cancers (8), we observed a significant up-regulation of CD46 expression by mesothelioma cancer cells in comparison with nontransformed mesothelial cells. We also noted a correlation between the expression level of CD46 receptor and MV infection yield, thus providing a mechanistic basis for the increased susceptibility of MPM to MV oncolytic activity.
Although in vitro models have clearly shown that replication-competent oncolytic viruses efficiently spread and kill tumoral cell cultures, in vivo studies indicated that many physical barriers (circulating complement and neutralizing antibodies, and architecture of the tumoral environment) could severely hamper the virus from reaching to the tumor site (4) and restrict viral replication to delimited peripheral areas within the tumoral mass (9, 10, 40). These observations strongly suggest that antitumoral properties of oncolytic viruses probably involve more than just tumor cell killing. Currently, there is increasing evidence that additional immune mechanisms may be implicated in virotherapy-mediated therapeutic effect. Indeed, several experimental studies have shown that neutrophils and CD8 T cells contribute to HSV-related (41), VSV-related (13, 14), and MV-related (18) virotherapy efficiency. This new approach of cancer immunotherapy, based on in vivo infection of tumors, raises the possibility to eliminate tumoral cells because they are recognized as infected rather than malignant (42). This could lead to the lysis of at least a limited set of infected tumor cells, thus providing an inflammatory state within the tumoral environment in favor of the induction of an efficient immune response (13). Indeed, this infectious site might release numerous proinflammatory factors that could lead to the recruitment of innate immune effectors (such as neutrophils and natural killer cells) and to the loading and activation of antigen-presenting cells (such as macrophages and DCs). This would provide an immunogenic presentation context of released tumor-associated cargo for the activation of an efficient tumor-specific CTL response (42). As previously described in the melanoma model, tumoral cell death promoted by oncolytic virus infection, with modified virus Ankara poxvirus (43) or H-1 parvovirus (44), was previously related to an increased capacity for tumor-specific CD8 T-cell priming. We also showed that DCs loaded with apoptotic MV-infected human mesothelioma cells stimulate a significant proliferation of MSLN-specific CD8 effector T cells. This important result strongly supports the hypothesis on the participation of virus-induced antitumor immunity in therapeutic efficiency of MV-based oncolytic treatment (18).
Although previous studies showed a potential adjuvant activity of oncolytic virus in CTL response induction (43, 44), they did not describe spontaneous DC maturation such as we readily observed in this study. To our knowledge, these experimental data represent the first case wherein virus-induced death of human tumor cells induces spontaneous DC maturation without any additional adjuvant maturation stimuli (such as cytokine cocktails). Thus, our experimental results raise an interesting point about the mechanism(s) potentially implicated in a significantly increased immunogenicity of apoptotic measles-infected tumoral cells. Until now, apoptotic dying cells were thought to be weakly immunogenic, thereby modulating the immune response toward tolerance rather than immunity (34). However, several reports have already shown the possibility of overriding the inhibitory effects of apoptotic cell ingestion on DC maturation by triggering apoptosis in the presence of inflammatory "danger signals," such as those produced by viral infection. The increased immunogenicity of infected tumoral cells may thus rely on innate immune stimuli, such as HSP70 (32, 33, 45) or dsRNA (28, 29, 31), produced by virally infected cells. Indeed, we readily observed that measles infection of M13 mesothelioma cells induces both HSP70 and dsRNA production peaking at 72 h after infection, a time delay necessary to detect a relevant DC spontaneous maturation (data not shown). As previously described by our group, DCs loaded with apoptotic HSP70-expressing M13 cells and activated by exogenous maturation agents are potent in vitro inducers of mesothelioma-specific CTLs (23). Interestingly, recent studies indicated a relevant adjuvant effect of cellular-associated dsRNA for tumor cells loaded with poly(I:C) (46, 47) and for virally Semliki Forest virus–infected Vero cells (48). So, although not directly correlated by our results, we hypothesize that apoptotic mesothelioma cells loaded with viral dsRNA produced by MV infection might be a strong immunogenic signal, leading to the spontaneous maturation of monocyte-derived DCs and the subsequent activation of a relevant MSLN-specific CD8 T-cell response. Hence, our results suggest that MV-based virotherapy therapeutic efficiency may rely not only on viral oncolytic activity but also on virus immunoadjuvant properties, which may lead to priming of an efficient antitumor immune response.
This work raises a controversial question about the relative contribution of cross-priming and direct priming in the activation of the host immune response. One of the major human immunosuppressive viral diseases is related to measles infection (6). Indeed, MV induces a transient but profound systemic immunosuppression that is associated with an increased susceptibility to opportunistic secondary infections. However, at the same time, MV infection also stimulates a specific antiviral immune response that provides an efficient life-long protective immunity in infected individuals. Although not clearly understood, this immunologic paradox is believed to be determined by early interactions of the virus with DCs (49). Indeed, all DC sources tested were shown to be productively infected with MV (50, 51, 52). Both wild-type MV strains and Edmonston-derived vaccines induce the maturation of DCs, albeit with different kinetics (50). Activation of DCs was observed within 24 h following wild-type infection, but only 48 to 72 h after Edmonston infection. In our study, we observed that monocyte-derived DCs are infected by the MV Schwarz strain with a lower yield than mesothelioma tumor cells. The direct contact of DCs with the MV Schwarz vaccine leads to the up-regulation of the major maturation markers 2 to 3 days after infection (data not shown). So, we thought that the evolution of the DC phenotype observed only after 24 h of coculture might rather be induced by the phagocytosis of MV-infected mesothelioma cells than by a direct infection of DCs.
In measles pathogenesis, DCs are believed to be a reservoir for MV spread into the draining lymph nodes during DC-T-cell cross-talk (49). Several in vitro studies already showed that the interaction of MV-infected DCs with T cells not only induces syncytia formation, where MV undergoes massive replication, but also leads to an impairment of DC and T-cell functions (51, 52). Indeed, MV-infected DCs are not able to stimulate the proliferation of naive T cells (52), and they also exhibit a cytotoxic activity on activated T cells (51). Because direct infection of DCs strongly altered their ability to stimulate effector T lymphocytes, the proliferation of MSLN-specific CD8 T-cell precursors detected in the coculture might rather be induced by DCs loaded with MV-infected tumor cells. So, the immunologic mechanisms underlying measles-induced immune suppression seem to be at least partially mediated through a direct targeting of DCs. In these conditions, it remains to be understood how DCs could stimulate MV-specific CD8 T cells to elicit an efficient life-long protection to MV (49). Several pathways for the presentation of viral antigens to CD8 T cells by DCs have been identified (direct priming versus cross-priming). Cross-presentation of viral antigens by DC, by the uptake of virus-infected cells (48) or viral immune complexes (53), can serve as a means by which the host immune system can circumvent viral interference. Cross-priming may be dedicated to viruses that do not have natural tropism for DCs or viruses such as MV that may exert immunosuppressive activities on infected DCs (48). Because a viral-specific immune response might be rather induced through the cross-presentation pathway (53), we hypothesize that the reactivation of an antitumoral immune response by measles virotherapy could also use this indirect pathway.
Today, it seems likely that no conventional treatment modality will be effective enough by itself for an efficient MPM management (2). So, immunotherapy could be used as an adjuvant protocol to optimize the efficiency of current mesothelioma treatments, such as chemotherapy with pemetrexed-cisplatin drugs (54), or in the future pathogen-based therapy with bacterial immunotoxin (SS1P; ref. 55) or oncolytic viruses (such as AdV, HSV, or MV; ref. 4). We believe that the results obtained from our study can help to design a new kind of therapeutic pathway based on a synergistic association between virotherapy and immunotherapy.
| Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest |
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| Acknowledgments |
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We thank Dr. P. Despres for his helpful comment on the manuscript, C. Combredet for her technical assistance in MV titrations, and K. Kean for the English editing.
Received 11/15/07. Revised 3/17/08. Accepted 4/ 8/08.
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