Background
Although surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy have contributed to the successful treatment of cancer, there are still many cases of cancer that are not eradicated by these treatments. The treatment of advanced and metastatic cancers and the prevention of recurrence are the most difficult problems for cancer therapy.
Oncolytic viruses have received attention from researchers because of their powerful killing effect on cancer cells [
1,
2]. Some viruses have been discovered from viral mutants [
3] or constructed by viral genome engineering [
4,
5]. The oncolytic viruses have worked very well in animal tumor models. However, they have been less successful in the treatment of humans [
6]. Moreover, tumor-selective replication of the viruses is not strict enough to prevent viral replication in non-cancerous cells [
7], although the efficiency of replication is much lower than that in cancer cells.
To minimize the side effects of oncolytic viruses, we have been focusing on the anti-tumor activities of inactivated HVJ particles (HVJ-E). We recently found that HVJ-E itself mediates a powerful anti-tumor effect by enhancing cytokine production in dendritic cells (DCs), generating tumor-specific cytotoxic T cells (CTLs), and inhibiting regulatory T-cell activity [
8]. However, direct tumor-killing by HVJ-E was not detected in murine tumors.
HVJ-E was originally developed as a novel drug delivery system [
9]. We tested the feasibility of HVJ-E vector for the delivery of anticancer reagents and found that bleomycin (BLM), an anticancer antibiotic, could be delivered to cancer cells by the HVJ-E vector approximately 300-fold more effectively than by BLM alone [
10]. Taken together, our data suggest that HVJ-E enables the creation of a vector system with the dual functions of drug delivery and immunostimulation. However, in Mima's report [
10], the HVJ-E containing bleomycin (HVJ-E/BLM) was administered into intraperitoneal cavity disseminated with colon cancer cells. The anti-tumor effect of HVJ-E/BLM on solid tumors remains to be examined.
In the present study, we demonstrated that intra-tumor injection of HVJ-E/BLM combined with systemic administration of cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (II) (CDDP; cisplatin) achieved highly effective tumor eradication by both inducing anti-tumor immunity and delivering anti-cancer reagent to tumors.
Methods
Preparation of BLM-incorporated HVJ-E vector
HVJ-E vector was prepared as previously described [
9]. Briefly, 100 μl of 10000-fold diluted HVJ seed solution was injected into the allantoic cavity of 10-day-old embryonated chicken eggs. After 3 days of incubation, the allantoic fluid was harvested and the titer of recovered virus (live HVJ) was measured in hemagglutination units (HAU). An HVJ suspension (6000 HAU) was inactivated by irradiation (99 mJ/cm
2) and mixed with 60 μl of 40 mg/ml bleomycin (BLM) and 2 μl of 3% Triton X-100. After incubating for 15 min at 4°C, the suspension was washed with 500 μl of saline (Otsuka, Tokyo, Japan) and centrifuged (15000
g) for 15 min at 4°C to obtain HVJ-E vector. Then, the suspension was washed an additional two times with 500 μl of saline to completely remove the detergent and the unincorporated BLM. After centrifugation, the HVJ-E/BLM was suspended in 180 μl of saline. The efficacy of BLM inclusion into the vector was quantitatively measured with HPLC. The amount of BLM in 1000 HAU of HVJ-E/BLM was 0.18 μg when 5 mg/ml BLM was used, 0.41 μg with 10 mg/ml BLM, 0.84 μg with 20 mg/ml BLM, 1.12 μg with 30 mg/ml BLM, 1.32 μg with 40 mg/ml BLM, 1.34 μg with 50 mg/ml BLM and 1.52 μg with 100 mg/ml BLM. Thus, the amount of BLM incorporated into the HVJ-E vector increased in proportion to the BLM concentration up to 40 mg/ml of BLM and plateaued at BLM concentrations greater than 40 mg/ml. The 40 mg/ml concentration of BLM was used to prepare the HVJ-E/BLM used in these experiments.
In vitroexperiments
CT-26 cells (American Type Culture Collection, Manassas, VA, USA) were maintained in DMEM (Nakalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, penicillin (50 units/ml) (Nakalai), and streptomycin (50 μg/ml) (Nakalai) and incubated at 37°C in a 5% CO2. HVJ-E/BLM was prepared with 40 mg/ml of BLM diluted with saline. BLM (BLEO) was purchased from Nippon Kayaku (Tokyo, Japan).
In vivoexperiments
All animal experiments were approved by the Animal Committee of Osaka University and conducted in a humane fashion according to their guidelines. Male BALB/c mice, 5–6 weeks of age, were obtained from Charles River Japan, Inc (Yokohama, Japan). Mice were housed for 7 days and allowed free access to food and water. For tumor cell implantation, CT-26 cells were enzymatically detached from culture flasks and counted. Viable cells (5 × 106) were resuspended in 100 μl of PBS and intradermally (i.d.) injected into the right flanks of the mice. Five days after tumor inoculation, intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of 200 μg of CDDP (Platosin Inj 10, Pfizer, Tokyo) and/or intratumoral (i.t.) injections of 100 μl of HVJ-E/BLM (5000 HAU) (day 1 and/or 6 day and/or 9 day after CDDP injection) were administrated. After injection of CDDP, tumor size was measured every 3 days, and survival of the animals was monitored. Tumor volume was calculated using the following formula: tumor volume (mm3) = length × (width)2/2.
Cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) assay
Spleen cells were harvested 10 days after CDDP administration. The spleen cells (5 × 106 cells/well) were co-cultured with mitomycin C (MMC)-treated tumor cells at a ratio of 20:1 in 24-well plates. Each well contained 2 ml of T-cell culture medium that consisted of RPMI1640 medium supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated FBS, antibiotics, and 50 μM 2-mercaptoethanol. Cells were cultured at 37°C in 5% CO2. These cells, which contained CTLs, were harvested after 5 days of culture and used as effector cells in a standard 4-h 51Cr release assay to examine the cytolytic activity of effector cells against target tumor cells. Briefly, target tumor cells (1 × 106) were labeled with 100 μCi of 51Cr (Amersham Bioscience, Buckinghamshire, UK) in 200 μl of RPMI1640 supplemented with 10% FBS for 90 min at 37°C. The labeled target cells (1 × 104 cells/well) were incubated with the effector cells in 96-well microtiter plates. Cells were incubated in 200 μl of T-cell medium for 4 h at 37°C. Various effector/target (E/T) ratios were used. The plates were then centrifuged, and the radioactivity of the supernatants was counted using a MicroBeta Trilux Scintillation Counter (Wallac, Gaithersburg, MD, USA). The maximum release was defined as the counts from samples incubated with 2% Triton X-100, and the spontaneous release was defined as the counts from samples incubated with medium alone. Cytolytic activity was calculated using the following formula: percentage of specific 51Cr release = (experimental release - spontaneous release) × 100/(maximum release-spontaneous release). Assays were performed in duplicate wells. The spontaneous release of all assays was <20% of the maximum release.
Re-challenge experiment
Fifteen days after the CDDP administration that was followed by single or multiple injections of HVJ-E/BLM, the BALB/c mice were re-challenged by intradermal (i.d.) injection of 5 × 106 CT-26 cells (n = 5) or Meth A cells (n = 5). The injection site was proximal to (but not the same as) the initial injection site. After tumor challenge, the tumor size was measured with calipers every 3 days. The measurements were made in a blinded manner. Tumor volume was then calculated.
Eight months after the tumors were eradicated in four mice (9 months after the initial tumor inoculation), these mice were re-challenged by i.d. injection of 5 × 106 parental cells into the back.
Discussion
In this study, we demonstrate that multiple i.t. injections of HVJ-E/BLM combined with a single i.p. administration of CDDP was the most effective treatment for eradicating CT26 tumors in most of the tumor-bearing mice. It appears that this combination therapy induced tumor-killing by chemotherapy and anti-tumor immunity induced by multiple injections of HVJ-E. In chemotherapy, HVJ-E/BLM significantly suppressed tumor growth, but systemic administration of CDDP was indispensable for effective killing of tumors.
We recently reported that HVJ-E itself induced a remarkable infiltration of DCs, CD4
+ T cells, and CD8
+ T cells into tumors and activated tumor-specific CTLs [
8]. Moreover, by inducing the secretion of IL-6 from DCs, HVJ-E inhibited regulatory T cells, which suppress effector T cells [
8]. In our current study, multiple HVJ-E/BLM injections into initial tumors suppressed the growth of tumors subsequently implanted on the opposite side of the mouse, and mice showing a complete response rejected a re-challenge with the same tumor cells. CTLs against CT26 were highly activated in the tumor-free mice. These results indicate that multiple injections of HVJ-E/BLM into primary tumors can eradicate metastatic tumors and mediate prophylactic activity against initial tumors.
In our recent paper [
8], HVJ-E alone eradicated CT26 tumors, while, as shown in Figure
1, HVJ-E alone was less effective than HVJ-E/BLM. In the former case, we injected 5 × 10
5 cells per mouse. However, in the present study, 5 × 10
6 CT26 cells were intradermally injected into one mouse. The growth rate of tumors was quite different between both cases. In the former case, on day 20, the tumor reached approximately 600 mm
3, but in our present study, the volume was 2700 mm
3. Thus, the tumor model was much more aggressive in our current study than in the previous one. HVJ-E/BLM effectively eradicated tumors even in such an aggressive tumor model, whereas HVJ-E alone failed in tumor regression. Therefore, HVJ-E/BLM is obviously superior to HVJ-E alone in terms of therapeutic efficacy.
Although anti-tumor immunotherapy holds great promise, there have been many obstacles to its development [
11,
12]. Although current immunotherapy can reduce, delay, or prevent tumor recurrence, many tumors still progress because of the development of mechanisms to avoid recognition and elimination by the immune system [
13,
14]. The mechanisms of immune system evasion include down-regulation of antigen-processing components and antigen-presentation machinery, weak priming of tumor immunity, and the induction of T-cell tolerance by immunosuppressive molecules produced from cancer cells [
15‐
18]. These problems are a considerable challenge to successful cancer therapy. Therefore, to produce more effective cancer immunotherapy, tumor volume should be reduced as much as possible. Indeed, immunotherapy is often combined with other therapy such as surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy [
19,
20]. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been frequently used for the treatment of inoperable tumors. However, chemotherapy and radiotherapy often weaken anti-tumor immunity due to the suppression of bone marrow stem cell function [
21]. To increase cytotoxicity of anti-cancer drugs with minimal damage to non-cancerous tissues, new drug delivery systems have been considered. For this purpose, numerous synthetic vectors such as liposomes and micelles have been developed [
22]. With these vectors, anti-cancer drugs can be delivered to tumors much more effectively than by circulatory delivery alone [
23]. A drug-delivery vector with adjuvant properties is the most appropriate system to achieve both direct tumor killing and anti-tumor immunity induction. Consequently, HVJ-E seems to be an ideal vector system. Furthermore, it is likely that the anti-tumor immunity induced by HVJ-E can be retained even when combined with chemotherapy.
We have already reported anti-tumor effects of HVJ-E in other murine tumor models. Renal cancers transplanted to Balb/c mice intradermally were completely eradicated by three times injection of HVJ-E alone [
24] and orthotopic bladder carcinoma was suppressed by intravesical injection of HVJ-E with doxorubicin[
25]. Activation of anti-tumor immunity was detected in both cases after HVJ-E treatment.
In a human xenograft tumor model, T cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity is not induced. However, the growth of HeLa cell tumors in SCID mice were dramatically inhibited by intratumoral injection of HVJ-E containing Rad51 siRNA with intraperitoneal administration of cisplatin [
26]. Thus, in a human xenograft tumor model, HVJ-E can suppress tumors by the ability of drug delivery.
Treatment with CDDP plus multiple injections of HVJ-E/BLM enhances therapy against primary tumors and metastatic lesions as well as prophylactic activity against tumor recurrence.
We have developed the technologies to produce large amounts of HVJ and to purify HVJ-E and established a pilot plant to produce clinical grade vectors. We will proceed to clinical trials to treat cancers using HVJ-E in a few years.
Competing interests
The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
HK participated in the design of the study, performed the experiments, and drafted the manuscript. SK participated in design of the study, performed the experiments. TK performed the experiments. YK developed drug delivery methods, participated in design of the study and coordination, and critically revised the draft. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.