A correlation between the expression of CD 8 antigen and specific cytotoxicity of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes

Prognostic Relevance of Tumor-Infiltrating Immune Cells in Cervix Squamous Cell Carcinoma

There exists a variety of studies about tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) in cervical cancer, but their prognostic value in correlation with the histopathological subtype has never been investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to quantify TIICs in a panel of 238 sporadic cervical cancers and investigate the correlation with cervical cancer subtype and patient survival. TIICs levels were significantly increased in the subgroup of CSCC (191 samples) in comparison to CAC (47 samples). In CSCC, TIICs' infiltration showed a negative correlation with age, FIGO stage and with the histone protein modification H3K4me3. Moreover, in CAC, it was positively correlated with p16 and with the glucocorticoid receptor and inversely correlated with the MDM2 protein and with H3K4me3. Interestingly, immune infiltration was an independent positive prognosticator for disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with CSCC, those bearing tumors with the strongest TIICs infiltration showing the better DFS. Altogether, the present study provides a differentiated overview of the relations between TIIC levels and prognosis in patients with CSCC vs. patients with CAC.

The ELISPOT assay: an easily transferable method for measuring cellular responses and identifying T cell epitopes

Characterization of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I restricted epitopes derived from viral pathogens is imperative for formulating therapeutic interventions, as well as for vaccine design and monitoring. Sensitive, easy and cost-effective assays that measure the frequency of antigen-specific T lymphocytes are crucial for evaluating and improving vaccines and therapies. This paper reviews the ELISPOT technique that allows for quantifying HIV-specific T lymphocytes at the single cell level from peripheral blood by detection of antigen-induced cytokine secretion. The assay can be used successfully to quantify T cell immune responses in humans infected with different pathogens and to assess T cell immunogenicity of vaccines in phase I/II and III clinical trials. This review focuses on the ELISPOT methodology and discusses how it can be standardized and potentially used by multiple international laboratories attached to clinical trial sites.

Effects of retinoic acid combined with interferon-gamma on the expression of major-histocompatibility-complex molecules and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 in human cervical cancer

Retinoids and interferons are important regulators of human epithelial cell differentiation and have been successfully used in the clinical treatment of HPV-involved cervical cancer. In this study, 2 HPV-positive human cervical-carcinoma cell lines were analyzed for their surface expression of MHC-Class-I, MHC-Class-II and ICAM-1 surface antigens before and after exposure to all-trans retinoic acid, interferon-gamma and the combination of the 2 compounds. In addition, the effects on HLA-Class-I-mRNA expression were evaluated after such treatments. Both cell lines expressed MHC-Class-I molecules, and their levels were markedly up-regulated after exposure to IFN-gamma. Similarly, MHC-Class-II and ICAM-1 antigens were either induced or significantly up-regulated by IFN-gamma. Exposure to all-trans retinoic acid was also able to significantly increase the expression of MHC-Class-I and ICAM-I antigens as compared with untreated tumor cells. However, unlike IFN-gamma, retinoids were not able to induce the expression of HLA-Class-II surface antigens. Exposure to the combination of IFN-gamma plus retinoic acid significantly up-regulated (in an additive manner) HLA-Class-I and ICAM-1 molecules as compared with the levels obtainable after exposure to IFN-gamma alone. Finally, Northern-blot analysis of HLA-Class-I-mRNA expression confirmed that the activity of both of these biologic response modifiers was at transcriptional level. These data indicate that the combination of these modalities could induce an additive effect on the expression of immunologically important surface antigens on human cervical-cancer cells. These findings, together with the known anti-proliferative effects mediated by retinoids and IFN-gamma on tumor cells, further support the combination of these agents in the treatment of pre-invasive and invasive human cervical cancer.

Natural killer (NK) and lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) activities in a patient who recovered from cancer, and the characteristics of LAK cells generated from CD4-CD8- and CD8+ peripheral blood lymphocytes

The natural killer (NK) and lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) activities of a patient who recovered from bladder transitional cell carcinoma were determined. The patient was diagnosed in 1980 and repeated several therapies until 1986. Since 1987, he has been in a tumor-free state. Recently, very high NK and LAK activities were found. The NK activity was recognized not only against the NK-sensitive cell line K562, but also against NK-unsensitive Raji and Daudi cell lines and against autotumor cell line H41. The percentage of CD16+ in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) was 52.9%, the CD8+CD16+ was 26.3%, and the CD4-CD8-CD16+ was 26.6% (17.5, 5.4 and 12.1% in healthy blood donor (control), respectively). Because the patient had large numbers of CD4-CD8- cells in the PBL, CD4-CD8- LAK were generated from them. The CD4-CD8- LAK cells exhibited extremely high killer activity, whereas the CD8+ LAK cells generated from the CD8+ cells showed a low level of killer activity. These results suggest that the tumor-free condition of this patient may be related to these high killer activities. In this patient, several cytokines were also determined, although the results were not completely interpreted.

Solid-phase anti-CD3 antibody activation and cryopreservation of human tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes derived from epithelial ovarian cancer

The effect of solid-phase anti-CD3 antibody activation and cryopreservation was evaluated on thirteen samples of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) derived from epithelial ovarian cancer. Seven preparations of TILs were cultured with or without solid-phase anti-CD3 antibody in addition to 100 units/ml of recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2). The proliferation rate of all of the seven TIL preparations stimulated by anti-CD3 antibody on the fourth or fifth day of culture was 3.4 to 9.8 times greater than that of lymphocytes cultured with rIL-2 alone. Furthermore, in an experiment with five TIL samples activated with anti-CD3 antibody, three of them showed augmented cytotoxic activity against autologous fresh tumor cells. The population of CD3+/CD8+ TILs was increased after 4-5 weeks of cultivation and CD8+ lymphocytes amounted to over 70% in all of seven preparations tested, whereas two of seven preparations not activated by anti-CD3 antibody were CD3+/CD4(+)-dominant. In addition, nine preparations of TILs cultured with rIL-2 were cryopreserved for several weeks; after recovery from cryopreservation, no major change was observed in cell surface markers, in growth rate or in cytotoxic activity. These results suggest that cryopreserved and/or anti-CD3 antibody-activated lymphocytes could conveniently be employed in a clinical trial of adoptive immunotherapy employing TIL.

Immune effect of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and its relation to the survival rate of patients with ovarian malignancies

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) in histological sections from 94 patients with ovarian malignancies were quantitated for their relation to the prognosis of the patients. It was found that the degree of lymphocyte infiltration directly affected the patients' survival rate and also related to clinical staging of the patients, as well as grading and histologic typing of the tumor. T lymphocytes characterized by alpha-naphthyl acetate (ANAE) staining were the major cells in the stroma of ovarian malignancies. Ultrastructural study of TIL and cancer cells suggested that tumor cell degeneration is related to the effect of TIL.

Time course of changes in phenotypes of cultured tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes isolated from human colorectal cancer

A study was conducted to investigate the time course of changes in phenotypes of cultured tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) isolated from 5 patients with colorectal cancer. Following initial incubation with protein phytohemagglutinin (PHA-P, final concentration 0.1 w/v%), one of the inducers of interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor, and recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2, 1000U/ml) for 3 days, TIL was further cultured with rIL-2 alone for another 46 to 79 days. Phenotypes of cultured TIL were analyzed by a two color flow-cytometry. The following results were obtained: 1) Yields of TIL isolated from cancerous tissues were 1.0 x 10(6) to 1.6 x 10(6) cells/g wet weight, and TIL grew 31 to 3700 folds in the entire period of culture. These growth rates were significantly higher than those obtained by the conventional method of culture with rIL-2 alone (1 to 720 folds). 2) The population of cytotoxic T cells (CD8(+), CD11(-)) reached the maximum (92%, median value) at 5 weeks of culture, and thereafter gradually decreased to 61% at 9 and 10 weeks. In contrast, the population of activated natural killer cells (CD16(+) and Leu7 (+) or (-)) remained below 4% for the entire period of culture. 3) Maximum enhancement of specific cytotoxic activities of cultured TIL was observed during 3 to 4 weeks in culture, using K562 cells as well as Daudi cells as target cells. In conclusion, addition of PHA-P seems to beneficially affect the growth rate of TIL in culture.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)