Vaccination of a melanoma patient with mature dendritic cells pulsed with MAGE-3 peptides triggers the activity of nonvaccine anti-tumor cells

J Immunol. 2008 Mar 1;180(5):3585-93. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.180.5.3585.

Abstract

We previously characterized the CTL response of a melanoma patient who experienced tumor regression following vaccination with an ALVAC virus coding for a MAGE-A3 Ag. Whereas anti-vaccine CTL were rare in the blood and inside metastases of this patient, anti-tumor CTL recognizing other tumor Ags, mainly MAGE-C2, were 100 times more frequent in the blood and considerably enriched in metastases following vaccination. In this study we report the analysis of the CTL response of a second melanoma patient who showed a mixed tumor response after vaccination with dendritic cells pulsed with two MAGE-A3 antigenic peptides presented, respectively, by HLA-A1 and HLA-DP4. Anti-MAGE-3.A1 CD8 and anti-MAGE-3.DP4 CD4 T cells became detectable in the blood after vaccination at a frequency of approximately 10(-5) among the CD8 or CD4 T cells, respectively, and they were slightly enriched in slowly progressing metastases. Additional anti-tumor CTL were present in the blood at a frequency of 2x10(-4) among the CD8 T cells and, among these, an anti-MAGE-C2 CTL clone was detected only following vaccination and was enriched by >1,000-fold in metastases relative to the blood. The striking similarity of these results with our previous observations further supports the hypothesis that the induction of a few anti-vaccine T cells may prime or restimulate additional anti-tumor T cell clones that are mainly responsible for the tumor regression.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial, Phase I
  • Clinical Trial, Phase II
  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Antigens, Neoplasm / immunology
  • Antigens, Neoplasm / metabolism
  • Antigens, Neoplasm / therapeutic use*
  • Cell Differentiation / immunology
  • Cell Line, Transformed
  • Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic
  • Dendritic Cells / immunology*
  • Dendritic Cells / metabolism
  • Dendritic Cells / transplantation*
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy, Adoptive / methods*
  • K562 Cells
  • Lymphocyte Count
  • Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / immunology
  • Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / pathology
  • Melanoma / immunology*
  • Melanoma / pathology
  • Melanoma / secondary
  • Melanoma / therapy*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Neoplasm Proteins / immunology
  • Neoplasm Proteins / metabolism
  • Neoplasm Proteins / therapeutic use*
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / immunology
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / pathology
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / secondary
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / therapy
  • Peptide Fragments / immunology
  • Peptide Fragments / metabolism
  • Peptide Fragments / therapeutic use*
  • Skin Neoplasms / immunology
  • Skin Neoplasms / pathology
  • Skin Neoplasms / secondary
  • Skin Neoplasms / therapy
  • T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / immunology*
  • T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / metabolism
  • T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / pathology
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured

Substances

  • Antigens, Neoplasm
  • MAGEA3 protein, human
  • Neoplasm Proteins
  • Peptide Fragments