Interleukin-2-induced small unilamellar vesicle coalescence

Smart Lipid-Based Nanosystems for Therapeutic Immune Induction against Cancers: Perspectives and Outlooks

Cancer immunotherapy, a promising and widely applied mode of oncotherapy, makes use of immune stimulants and modulators to overcome the immune dysregulation present in cancer, and leverage the host's immune capacity to eliminate tumors. Although some success has been seen in this field, toxicity and weak immune induction remain challenges. Liposomal nanosystems, previously used as targeting agents, are increasingly functioning as immunotherapeutic vehicles, with potential for delivery of contents, immune induction, and synergistic drug packaging. These systems are tailorable, multifunctional, and smart. Liposomes may deliver various immune reagents including cytokines, specific T-cell receptors, antibody fragments, and immune checkpoint inhibitors, and also present a promising platform upon which personalized medicine approaches can be built, especially with preclinical and clinical potentials of liposomes often being frustrated by inter- and intrapatient variation. In this review, we show the potential of liposomes in cancer immunotherapy, as well as the methods for synthesis and in vivo progression thereof. Both preclinical and clinical studies are included to comprehensively illuminate prospects and challenges for future research and application.

Engineering Strategies for Immunomodulatory Cytokine Therapies - Challenges and Clinical Progress

Cytokines are immunoregulatory proteins involved in many pathological states with promising potential as therapeutic agents. A diverse array of cytokines have been studied in preclinical disease models since the 1950s, some of which became successful biopharmaceutical products with the advancement of recombinant protein technology in the 1980s. However, following these early approvals, clinical translation of these natural immune signaling molecules has been limited due to their pleiotropic action in many cell types, and the fact that they have evolved to act primarily locally in tissues. These characteristics, combined with poor pharmacokinetics, have hindered the delivery of cytokines via systemic administration routes due to dose-limiting toxicities. However, given their clinical potential and recent clinical successes in cancer immunotherapy, cytokines continue to be extensively pursued in preclinical and clinical studies, and a range of molecular and formulation engineering strategies are being applied to reduce treatment toxicity while maintaining or enhancing therapeutic efficacy. This review provides a brief background on the characteristics of cytokines and their history as clinical therapeutics, followed by a deeper discussion on the engineering strategies developed for cytokine therapies with a focus on the translational relevance of these approaches.

Combination Immunotherapy With LIGHT and Interleukin-2 Increases CD8 Central Memory T-Cells In Vivo

BACKGROUND

The generation of long-term durable tumor immunity and prolonged disease-free survival depends on the ability to generate and support CD8+ central memory T-cells. Microsatellite-stable colon cancer is resistant to currently available immunotherapies; thus, development of novel mechanisms to increase both lymphocyte infiltration and central memory formation are needed to improve outcomes in these patients. We have previously demonstrated that both interleukin-2 (IL-2) and LIGHT (TNFSF14) independently enhance antitumor immune responses and hypothesize that combination immunotherapy may increase the CD8+ central memory T-cell response.

METHODS

Murine colorectal cancer tumors were established in syngeneic mice. Tumors were treated with control, soluble, or liposomal IL-2 at established intervals. A subset of animal tumors overexpressed tumor necrosis superfamily factor LIGHT (TNFSF14). Peripheral blood, splenic, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were isolated for phenotypic studies and flow cytometry.

RESULTS

Tumors exposed to a combination of LIGHT and IL-2 experienced a decrease in tumor size compared with IL-2 alone that was not demonstrated in wild-type tumors or between other treatment groups. Combination exposure also increased splenic central memory CD8+ cells compared with IL-2 administration alone, while not increasing tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. In the periphery, the combination enhanced levels of circulating CD8 T-cells and central memory T-cells, while also increasing circulating T-regulatory cells.

CONCLUSIONS

Combination of IL-2, whether soluble or liposomal, with exposure to LIGHT results in increased CD8+ central memory cells in the spleen and periphery. New combination immunotherapy strategies that support both effector and memory T-cell functions are critical to enhancing durable antitumor responses and warrant further investigation.

Synthesis of multifunctional lipid–polymer conjugates: application to the elaboration of bright far-red fluorescent lipid probes

Well-defined multifunctional lipid-polymer conjugates as new tools for the functionalization of lipid assemblies.

A novel proteoliposomal vaccine elicits potent antitumor immunity in mice

Therapeutic vaccination against idiotype is a promising strategy for immunotherapy of B-cell malignancies. Its feasibility, however, is limited by the requirement for a patient-specific product. Here we describe a novel vaccine formulation prepared by simply extracting cell-membrane proteins from lymphoma cells and incorporating them together with IL-2 into proteoliposomes. The vaccine was produced in 24 hours, compared with more labor-intensive and time-consuming hybridoma or recombinant DNA methods. The vaccine elicited T-cell immunity in vivo, as demonstrated by secretion of type 1 cytokines. It protected against tumor challenge at doses of tumor antigen 50 to 100 times lower than that previously observed using either liposomes formulated with IL-2 and secreted lymphoma immunoglobulin or a prototype vaccine consisting of lymphoma immunoglobulin conjugated to keyhole limpet hemocyanin. The increased potency justifies testing similar patient-specific human vaccines prepared using extracts from primary tumor samples.

A novel proteoliposomal vaccine induces antitumor immunity against follicular lymphoma

Clinical studies suggest that treatment with vaccines comprised of idiotype protein may be associated with improved clinical outcome in follicular lymphoma patients. The time-consuming process required to generate patient-specific vaccines is a major limitation, however. Here we report results of a pilot clinical trial with a novel autologous, tumor-derived proteoliposome vaccine formulation that could be rapidly produced within a single day. Vaccination was safe, induced autologous tumor-specific type 1 cytokine responses in 5 out of 10 follicular lymphoma patients, and was associated with induction of a sustained complete response in one patient. Other patients had large tumor burdens and progressed after a median duration of 8 months. These results suggest that further testing of this vaccine formulation, particularly in the setting of minimal disease, is warranted. Furthermore, the proteoliposome formulation may provide a model for vaccine development for other human cancers, for which tumor-associated antigens need not be defined.

Transcutaneous IL-2 uptake mediated by Transfersomes depends on concentration and fractionated application

INTRODUCTION

Transfersomes (TF) are new, ultradeformable carriers with characteristics that enable them to penetrate the skin spontaneously. TFs are able to transport noninvasively both low- and high-molecular-weight molecules into the body.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

TFs contain phosphatidylcholine and sodium cholate. Recombinant human interleukin-2 (Proleukin, Chiron) was added to the TFs and incubated for 24 h at 4 degrees C. The immunotransfersomes (ITF) were isolated from free interleukin-2 (IL-2) by filtration (Centrisart, Sartorius). Twenty-five thousand, 50,000 and 150,000 IU pure IL-2 and ITFs, which had been incubated with the same concentrations of IL-2, were applied subcutaneously (s.c.) (n = 8) and epicutaneously (e.c.) (n = 8) to mice. The IL-2 serum concentrations in the mice were then measured by ELISA after 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 24 h. Fractionation of the transdermal IL-2 application was also examined as a means of improving uptake.

RESULTS

In concentrations of 25,000 and 50,000 IU IL-2, the subcutaneous application of ITFs resulted in a longer lasting IL-2 serum concentration than did the subcutaneous application of pure IL-2. While at 25,000 IU, the epicutaneous application of ITFs resulted in serum concentrations comparable to those resulting from s.c. application, at 50,000 and 150,000 IU, only 50% and 22.6% of the maximum serum concentration resulting from the s.c. application of pure IL-2 was obtained. Fractionating the transdermal IL-2 application improved uptake.

CONCLUSION

We were able to show that biologically active IL-2 can be bonded to TFs up to 75%. It is possible to transport IL-2 through the skin using TFs. Both the concentration-dependent saturation of the TFs with IL-2 and fractionation of the application resulted in differing degrees of transcutaneous IL-2 uptake.

In situ vaccination against a non-immunogenic tumour using intratumoural injections of liposomal interleukin 2

Cancers appear to escape surveillance by the immune system at least in part because they fail to induce a protective immune response. Therapeutic vaccines based on specific tumour antigens and tumour cells modified ex vivo by genetic techniques are but two strategies being used to circumvent this problem. In this report, we describe a simple, yet effective alternative in which tumour-specific responses are induced by in situ administration of a well-characterized liposomal formulation of the cytokine interleukin 2 (IL-2). Using the non-immunogenic B16 melanoma model, intratumoural injections of liposomal IL-2 L(IL2), were shown to induce a long-lived immune response specific for the injected tumour. In conjunction with subsequent removal of the primary tumours by surgery, the injections increased mean survival to 57 days from a control value of 32 days and partially protected surviving mice against re-challenge with B16. L(IL2) induced an early infiltration of inflammatory cells within the tumours which was followed several days later by an influx of CD3+ T cells. The cellular influx and a coincident decrease in tumour growth were noted in both injected tumours and a second non-injected tumour on the same animal, thereby demonstrating the systemic nature of the immune response. Intratumoural injections of soluble IL-2 at the same dose failed to induce B16-specific cellular immunity or to prolong survival of the mice. Thus, liposomal formulation of the cytokine was fundamental to successful induction of immunity by this in situ vaccination regimen.

MUC1-specific CTLs are non-functional within a pancreatic tumor microenvironment

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive, treatment refractory disease and is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. In humans, 90% of pancreatic adenocarcinomas over-express altered forms of a tumor-associated antigen, MUC1 (an epithelial mucin glycoprotein), which is a target for immunotherapy. Using a clinically relevant mouse model of pancreas cancer that demonstrates peripheral and central tolerance to human MUC1 and develops spontaneous tumors of the pancreas, we have previously reported the presence of functionally active, low affinity, MUC1-specific precursor cytotoxic T cells (pCTLs). Hypothesis for this study is that MUC1-based immunization may enhance the low level MUC1-specific immunity that may lead to an effective anti-tumor response. Data demonstrate that MUC1 peptide-based immunization elicits mature MUC1-specific CTLs in the peripheral lymphoid organs. The mature CTLs secrete IFN-gamma and are cytolytic against MUC1-expressing tumor cells in vitro. However, active CTLs that infiltrate the pancreas tumor microenvironment become cytolytically anergic and are tolerized to MUC1 antigen, allowing the tumor to grow. We demonstrate that the CTL tolerance could be reversed at least in vitro with the use of anti-CD40 co-stimulation. The pancreas tumor cells secrete immunosuppressive cytokines, including IL-10 and TGF-beta that are partly responsible for the down-regulation of CTL activity. In addition, they down-regulate their MHC class I molecules to avoid immune recognition. CD4+ CD25+ T regulatory cells, which secrete IL-10, were also found in the tumor environment. Together these data indicate the use of several immune evasion mechanisms by tumor cells to evade CTL killing. Thus altering the tumor microenvironment to make it more conducive to CTL killing may be key in developing a successful anti-cancer immunotherapy.