Induction of cytotoxic T lymphocytes from the peripheral blood of a hepatocellular carcinoma patient using melanoma antigen-1 (MAGE-1) peptide.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the possibility of using melanoma antigen-1 (MAGE-1) peptide as a tumor vaccine to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).


METHODS
The expressions of MAGE-1 in 8 HCC cell lines and in liver cancer tissue from a patient were detected using RT-PCR. The type of human leucocyte antigen I(HLA I) of both 8 HCC cell lines and peripheral blood mononuclear cells of the patient was detected using a microcytotoxicity method to screen out target cell lines for the cytotoxicity assay. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from the HCC patient pulsed with an MAGE-1 peptide (NYKCRFPEI) were used as antigen presenting cells. Autogenous peripheral blood mononuclear cells were stimulated with antigen presenting cells every 7 days for 4 times to elicit cytotoxic T lymphocytes. The phenotype of effector cells was analyzed using flow cytometry. The cytotoxicity of effector cells was detected with a lactate dehydrogenase releasing assay.


RESULTS
The expressions of both MAGE-1 and HLA-A24 were detected in BEL7405 cell line which were used as the positive target cell line in the cytotoxicity assay. The expression of MAGE-1 alone was detected in HLE, BEL7402, BEL7404, QGY7703 and SMMC7721 cell lines, and the expression of neither MAGE-1 nor HLA-A24 was shown in QGY 7701 and HpG2 cell lines. The last 7 cell lines could be used as negative target cell lines in the cytotoxicity assay. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells expanded 32 folds during 28-day culture. The ratio of CD3(+) T cells increased by 16% (from 54% to 70%), and the ratio of CD8(+) T cells increased by 20% (from 36% to 56%) during 28-day culture. When the ratio of effector cells to target cells was 10:1, effector cells exhibited 62.5% cytotoxicity against autogenous lymphoblasts pulsed with the peptide (NYKCRFPEI) of MAGE-1 antigen, 40.25% cytotoxicity against BEL7405 cells, compared with 17.88% cytolysis observed against autogenous lymphoblasts, 19.55% against HLE cells, and 1.6% against QGY7701 cells. When the ratio of effector cells to target cells was 3.3:1, the cytotoxicity of effector cells against the peptide pulsed autogenous lymphoblasts was 53.6%, which was much higher against autogenous lymphoblasts, HLE cells and QGY7701 cells at 15.6%, 13% and 1%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The results demonstrate that cytotoxic T lymphocytes with the ability to specifically lyse target cells expressing both MAGE-1 and HLA-A24 could be successfully induced by the MAGE-1 peptide NYKCRFPEI in vitro. This indicates that a good result might be anticipated if this peptide is used as a tumor vaccine to treat HLA-A24 HCC patients.
Lu
Jianfeng
J
Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing 100044, China.
Leng
Xisheng
X
Peng
Jirun
J
Mou
Dongcheng
D
Pang
Xuewen
X
Shang
Xiaoying
X
Chen
Weifeng
W
D000328:Adult; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000276:immunology*; D015234:HLA-A Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D059871:HLA-A24 Antigen; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D058950:Melanoma-Specific Antigens; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D015234:HLA-A Antigens; D059871:HLA-A24 Antigen; C072011:MAGEA1 protein, human; D058950:Melanoma-Specific Antigens; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger