Enhancement of natural killer cell cytotoxicity by sodium/iodide symporter gene-mediated radioiodine pretreatment in breast cancer cells.
A phase II study of NK cell therapy in treatment of patients with recurrent breast cancer has recently been reported. However, because of the complexities of tumor microenvironments, effective therapeutic effects have not been achieved in NK cell therapy. Radioiodine (I-131) therapy inhibits cancer growth by inducing the apoptosis and necrosis of cancer cells. Furthermore, it can modify cancer cell phenotypes and enhance the effect of immunotherapy against cancer cells. The present study showed that I-131 therapy can modulate microenvironment of breast cancer and improve the therapeutic effect by enhancing NK cell cytotoxicity to the tumor cells. The susceptibility of breast cancer cells to NK cell was increased by precedent I-131 treatment in vitro. Tumor burden in mice treated with I-131 plus NK cell was significantly lower than that in mice treated with NK cell or I-131 alone. The up-regulation of Fas, DR5 and MIC A/B on irradiated tumor cells could be the explanation for the enhancement of NK cell cytotoxicity to tumor cells. It can be applied to breast cancer patients with iodine avid metastatic lesions that are non-responsive to conventional treatments.
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
Hae Won
HW
Kim
Jung Eun
JE
Kim
Mi-Hye
MH
Hwang
Yong Hyun
YH
Jeon
Sang-Woo
SW
Lee
Jaetae
J
Lee
Seok Kil
SK
Zeon
Byeong-Cheol
BC
Ahn
D000818:Animals; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000628:therapy; D002460:Cell Line; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D027981:Symporters / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000099209:Sodium-Iodide Symporters
D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; D027981:Symporters; D000099209:Sodium-Iodide Symporters