title: Combined transfection with EBV-specific epitopes and HLA-A2 genes is more effective than separate transfection in promoting CTL lysis against nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
abstract: To augment specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) lysis is a promising strategy for cancer therapy. In this study, we examined the boosting effect of CTLs upon autologous lymphoblastoid B cell lines (LCLs) transfected with diverse plasmids, to explore the possible CTL-based immunotherapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). FCM analysis displayed rather high ratio (>30%) of successfully transfected LCLs by utilizing the DMRIE-C kit. CTL assays demonstrated that substantially higher ratio of CTL specific lysis was observed upon the LCLs transfected with both expression vectors encoding EBV-specific epitopes and their presentation molecule HLA-A2, in contrast with those transfected separately. By transfecting the vector encoding HLA-A2 alone, only the LCLs of HLA-A2(+) donors elicited markedly higher CTL lysis. CTL assays also showed that there existed no marked differences upon transfection by either different vectors (pcDNA3, pNGVL3 or pNGVL3-hFlex), or different EBV-derived peptides (LMP(2)Pep1 or LMP(2)Pep2), or with or without the doubled DNA sequence encoding peptides. This study indicated a promising immunotherapy strategy on NPC through boosting and eliciting the EBV-specific CTL activation by transferring vectors encoding both EBV-specific epitopes and their presentation molecule HLA-A2 into autologous LCL, the presentation cells of MHC/peptide tetrameric complex.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology and Immunology, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610072, China. dingwj@163.com
authors.forename: Weijun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Choylen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D015789:HLA-A2 Antigen / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology / Q000637:transplantation; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D015789:HLA-A2 Antigen