Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells As Pharmacological Tools for Cancer Immunotherapy

EphA2 chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cells for the immunotherapy of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Background

It is urgent to explore an effective potential therapeutic strategy for ESCC. In recent years, cell-based cancer immunotherapy has become a potentially close for carcinoma therapy. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell technology is a kind of adoptive cell therapy technique which has been developed rapidly. We sought to obtain EphA2.CAR-T cell and revealed the ability of EphA2.CAR-T cells to kill esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells in vitro.

Methods

Firstly, the expression and location of EphA2 in ESCC tissues and cells was tested by immunohistochemistry staining and Western blot. Secondly, the second generation of EphA2.CAR was constructed via molecular biology technology, and transduced into T cells to obtain the EphA2.CAR-T cell. The transduction efficacies were assessed using flow cytometry (FCM). Thirdly, the effect of cell killing of EphA2.CAR-T cell on ESCC cells in vitro was detected by co-culture experiments. The productions of cytokines (TNF-α and IFN-γ) by EphA2.CAR-T cell after co-culture with ESCC cells were analyzed by ELISA assay.

Results

The expression of EphA2 was significantly upregulated in ESCC tissues and cells (P<0.05). EphA2 was expressed on the membrane of ESCC cells, so it could be served as tumor-associated surface antigens (TAA) of CAR for ESCC treatment. The EphA2.CAR-T cell was obtained successfully, and its' transduction efficacies was 61.4% by FCM. The ability of cell killing of EphA2.CAR-T cell was better than that of T cells (P<0.01), and demonstrated a dose-dependent cell killing. The results of ELISA assay showed that the levels of TNF-α and IFN-γ in EphA2.CAR-T cells were notably raised compared with T cells (P<0.05).

Conclusions

We firstly constructed the second generation of EphA2.CAR and established EphA2.CAR-T cells. The EphA2.CAR-T cells showed a dose-dependent cell killing of ESCC cells, and promoted the production of cytokines in vitro. These findings open a new way for treatment of ESCC by immunotherapy in the future.

Immunotherapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Current Advances and Future Expectations

Primary liver cancer is a common kind of digestive cancers with high malignancy, causing 745,500 deaths each year. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the major pathological type of primary liver cancer. Traditional treatment methods for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma have shown poor efficacy in killing residual cancer cells for a long time. In recent years, tumor immunotherapy has emerged as a promising method owing to its safety and efficacy with respect to delaying the progression of advanced tumors and protecting postoperative patients against tumor relapse and metastasis. Immune tolerance and suppression in tumor microenvironments are the theoretical basis of immunotherapy. Adoptive cell therapy functions by stimulating and cultivating autologous lymphocytes ex vivo and then reinfusing them into the patient to kill cancer cells. Cancer vaccination is performed using antigenic substances to activate tumor-specific immune responses. Immune checkpoint inhibitors can reactivate tumor-specific T cells and develop an antitumor effect by suppressing checkpoint-mediated signaling. Oncolytic viruses may selectively replicate in tumor cells and cause lysis without harming normal tissues. Here, we briefly introduce the mechanism of immunosuppression in hepatocellular carcinoma and summarize the rationale of the four major immunotherapeutic approaches with their current advances.

Current Status of Gene Engineering Cell Therapeutics

Ex vivo manipulations of autologous patient’s cells or gene-engineered cell therapeutics have allowed the development of cell and gene therapy approaches to treat otherwise incurable diseases. These modalities of personalized medicine have already shown great promises including product commercialization for some rare diseases. The transfer of a chimeric antigen receptor or T cell receptor genes into autologous T cells has led to very promising outcomes for some cancers, and particularly for hematological malignancies. In addition, gene-engineered cell therapeutics are also being explored to induce tolerance and regulate inflammation. Here, we review the latest gene-engineered cell therapeutic approaches being currently explored to induce an efficient immune response against cancer cells or viruses by engineering T cells, natural killer cells, gamma delta T cells, or cytokine-induced killer cells and to modulate inflammation using regulatory T cells.

Immunological Aspects of Cryoablation of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Comprehensive Review

In cryoimmunotherapy, target tumors are treated with cryoablation to generate antitumor immune responses. Because immune checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrated that lung cancer can be an immunotherapy-responsive disease, there has been renewed interest in the immunological aspects of cryoablation of lung cancer. Herein, we review preclinical and clinical trials of cryoablation of primary lung tumors. We examine the magnitude of cryoablation-induced antitumor immune responses and the synergy between cryoablation and either other immunotherapies or molecular targeted therapies to improve treatment responses in advanced lung cancer. We further discuss a rationale for the addition of cryoablation to immune checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of advanced lung cancer, which is currently under clinical investigation.

Recent advances in cell-mediated nanomaterial delivery systems for photothermal therapy

Cell-mediated “Trojan Horse” delivery vehicles overcome the drug delivery barriers to transport nano-agents enhancing the efficiency of photothermal therapy.

Adjuvant immunotherapy of dendritic cells and cytokine-induced killer cells is safe and enhances chemotherapy efficacy for multiple myeloma in China: a meta-analysis of clinical trials

Objective

The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of the combination of dendritic cells and cytokine-induced killer cells (DC–CIK) adjuvant immunotherapy and chemotherapy in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM).

Methods

Clinical trials were gathered by searching Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, and CNKI database. Outcome measurements including therapeutic efficacy, prognosis, immune function, and adverse events were extracted and evaluated.

Results

A total of 12 trials including 594 MM patients were involved in this study for statistical analysis. Results indicated that compared to chemotherapy alone, the combination of DC–CIK immunotherapy with chemotherapy significantly improved patients’ overall response rate (ORR, odds ratio [OR] =2.77, 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.88–4.10, P<0.00001), disease control rate (DCR, OR =2.90, CI =1.72–4.90, P<0.0001), and life quality (P<0.00001). The combined therapy showed advantages over chemotherapy alone in prognostic indicators including percentage of tumor cells (P=0.04), serum levels of β2-microglobin (P<0.0001), M protein (P<0.00001), and creatinine (P<0.0001), and 24 h urine light chains (P<0.00001). After combined treatment, CD4⁺ lymphocyte subsets’ percentages, CD4⁺/CD8⁺ ratio, and cytokines levels of AgNOR, IFN-γ, IL-2, and IL-12 were significantly increased (P<0.05), whereas CD8⁺ and CD4⁺CD25⁺ percentages and IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and TGF-β levels were obviously decreased (P<0.01), indicating a recovered immune condition.

Conclusion

Adjuvant DC–CIK immunotherapy enhances the efficacy of chemotherapy for MM and improves prognosis probably by reconstructing immune function.

Natural Killer Cells: Angels and Devils for Immunotherapy

In recent years, the relevance of the immune system to fight cancer has led to the development of immunotherapy, including the adoptive cell transfer of immune cells, such as natural killer (NK) cells and chimeric antigen receptors (CAR)-modified T cells. The discovery of donor NK cells’ anti-tumor activity in acute myeloid leukemia patients receiving allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) was the trigger to conduct many clinical trials infusing NK cells. Surprisingly, many of these studies did not obtain optimal results, suggesting that many different NK cell parameters combined with the best clinical protocol need to be optimized. Various parameters including the high array of activating receptors that NK cells have, the source of NK cells selected to treat patients, different cytotoxic mechanisms that NK cells activate depending on the target cell and tumor cell survival mechanisms need to be considered before choosing the best immunotherapeutic strategy using NK cells. In this review, we will discuss these parameters to help improve current strategies using NK cells in cancer therapy. Moreover, the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) modification, which has revolutionized the concept of immunotherapy, will be discussed in the context of NK cells. Lastly, the dark side of NK cells and their involvement in inflammation will also be discussed.