Background
Successful virotherapy of cancer is critically dependent on the ability of oncolytic viruses like vaccinia to overcome multiple defense barriers including the complement/antibody-mediated neutralization [
1], the interferon-induced anti-viral state [
2‐
5], as well as the innate and adaptive anti-viral immune mechanisms mediated by NK and T cells, respectively. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) represent a promising delivery vehicle that protects vaccinia virus from the effects of complement/neutralizing antibodies [
6], while also having the unique ability to home to sites of inflammation and tumor growth [
7]. This therapeutic platform also takes advantage of the immunosuppressive properties of MSC [
8‐
10], in particular, their ability to survive undetected in allogeneic settings and to transiently counteract the innate and adaptive anti-viral immunity [
11], thus enabling rapid virus spread and colonization of the tumor [
12,
13].
We therefore investigated the potential and feasibility of using ex vivo expanded mesenchymal stem cells as a delivery vehicle for oncolytic vaccinia virus. Mesenchymal stem cells can be expanded from various sources including adult bone marrow [
14], adipose tissue [
15], blood, and dental pulp or neonatal umbilical cord, placenta etc. [
16‐
19], and are known to possess potent immunosuppressive properties mediated by IDO [
20‐
22], PGE [
23‐
25], Adenosine [
26], TGFβ [
10,
27,
28], VEGF [
29,
30], HGF [
31‐
34], iNOS [
35‐
38], IL-10 [
27], HLA-G5 [
39], and Galectins [
40], regardless of the source of origin [
16,
29,
41]. Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) isolated from the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of liposuction aspirates are particularly useful because they are easily available and can be efficiently expanded in culture for different applications [
42‐
45]. Our studies indicate that these carrier cells possess impressive virus amplification potential and the capacity to immunosuppress both the innate and adaptive arms of anti-viral immunity.
The immunosuppressive properties of mesenchymal stem cells have been investigated extensively and supported by clinical data demonstrating their ability to avoid immune recognition and survive even in MHC-mismatched allogeneic recipients [
11,
46‐
48]. What remains still unclear, however, is how the immunosuppressive properties of MSCs will be affected by the progression of vaccinia virus infection especially in allogeneic MHC-mismatched settings. Importantly, MSC-mediated immunosuppression is subject to differential modulation by both type I [
36,
49] and II interferons [
22,
50‐
55], which are similarly involved in the control of vaccinia virus infection [
2,
3,
56,
57]. While type I interferons are secreted by any cell type in response to viral infection, including the MSC, Interferon gamma (IFNγ) is a type II interferon that is produced by a limited number of immune cells like NK, NKT and T cells in response to virus infection [
58] or, as we demonstrate, the carrier stem cells, particularly in some unfavorable allogeneic MHC-mismatch settings. These conflicting roles of IFNγ to limit virus spread through the induction of an anti-viral state but at the same time to stimulate MSC-mediated immunosuppression counteracting anti-viral immunity might prove to be a critically important determinant of therapeutic success.
We hypothesized that the complex interplay between vaccinia virus, ADSCs and immune cells could have significant impact on the ability of stem cells to function as a Trojan horse that can amplify and deliver oncolytic vaccinia virus. Here we show that interferons protect stem cells against vaccinia virus infection but compromise their function as a Trojan horse. The IFNγ responses to the virus and allogeneic stem cells alone or in combination, however, appear to be highly variable and patient-specific. Our studies indicate that these differences can be associated with subtle allogeneic NK- and T cell-mediated cytotoxic and cytokine responses that can result in the inactivation or complete rejection of the Trojan horse. These findings have significant implications for the development of cell-based delivery platforms for oncolytic viruses and suggest the need for proper screening and patient-specific matching to enable the successful use of off-the-shelf allogeneic cell carriers, as opposed to the more expensive personalized autologous stem cell approach.
Materials and methods
Cell lines, cytokines, and viruses
B16 F10 melanoma, A549 lung carcinoma, and CV-1 monkey kidney cells were obtained from Dr. Boris Minev, and K562 cells were a kind gift from Albert Perez-Ladaga, PhD. Cells were propagated in DMEM (B16, A549) from Gibco (Cat#: 11960069) or RPMI 1640 (K562) from Gibco (Cat: 21870092) supplemented with 10% Fetal Bovine Serum (Omega Scientific, FB-02, USDA certified, heat inactivated), 2 mM l-Glutamine (ThermoFisher Scientific, 25030081, 100×) and Penicillin/Streptomycin (Life Technologies, 15140122, 100×). Human IFNγ (Peprotech, cat# AF3000220UG, 20 mg lyophilized, diluted to 20 μg/ml approx. 1000× stock in 1×PBS supplemented with 0.1% FBS, stored at − 80 °C) and IFNβ (Peprotech, cat# AF30002B5UG, 5 μg lyophilized, diluted to 5 μg/ml approx. 1000× stock in 1×PBS supplemented with 0.1% FBS, stored at − 80 °C) were added to ADSCs for 24 h 1 to 3 days prior to virus infection. Sucrose gradient purified WT1/ACAM2000 and L14 (TK-inserted Turbo-FP635 engineered LIVP strain) vaccinia viruses were obtained from StemVac GmbH, Bernried, Germany. In some experiments the virus and ADSCs were pre-infected for 1 h with constant agitation on an orbital shaker at 37 °C (incubator) before adding them to PBMCs or tumor cell co-cultures.
Adipose-derived stem cells isolation and culture
Non-cancer donor SVF and PBMC were obtained as part of an IRB-approved protocol after informed written consent (International Cell Surgical Society; IRB# ICSS-2016-024). Fresh SVF fractions were plated to attach overnight and next day were washed to remove unattached cells and debris. Media was changed every 3–4 days until the mesenchymal stem cells start to grow and reach 80% confluency. Cell were expanded to 80% confluency and passaged every 3–4 days using TrypLE™ Express (Life Technologies, (1×), no phenol red, Cat# 12604021, 3 min 37C incubator) for up to 10 passages. Note that P12 has normal mesenchymal look and morphology but manifested evidence of gradual loss of immunosuppressive ability. ADSCs were expanded and maintained in 5% Human Platelet Extract (Cook Regentec, Stemmulate, PL-SP-100) in DMEM supplemented with l-Glutamine and Pen/Strep.
Generation of adipose-derived MSC constitutively expressing eGFP
RM20 adipose-derived stem cells at passage 0 were engineered to express eGFP under the control of the CMV promoter. A Lentiviral vector (VectorBuilder) containing eGFP was used to introduce eGFP for constitutive expression. 10,000 eGFP-positive cells were sorted at passage 1 and subsequently at passage 2 using the BioRAD S3 Cell Sorter. eGFP expression was confirmed by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy using the Keyence All-in-one Fluorescence Microscope BZ-X700 Series.
PBMC assays
PBMC were isolated through standard Ficoll protocol (Ficoll-Paque Plus, GE Healthcare, cat# 95021-205) and co-cultured (100 μl) with ADSC (50 μl) plus minus vaccinia virus (50 μl) for 48 h on 96-well flat-bottom plates and in a total of 200 μl R10 medium (RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% FBS, l-Glutamine and Pen/Strep). In some experiments the virus (50 μl) and stem cells (50 μl) were premixed and agitated on an orbital shaker at 37C (incubator) for 1 h, and then (100 μl of the mix) was added to the PBMCs without additional washing of any unbound virus. At the end of the 48 h incubation period the cells were recovered for staining and flow analysis directly or after an additional 4–5 h stimulation with K562 cells or PMA/Ionomycin (50 μl) with Monensin/Brefeldin A (50 μl) as needed.
Flow cytometry analysis
Co-cultures of PBMC and stem cells were recovered by pipetting and transferred to V-bottom plates, where they were washed with FACS Buffer (1×PBS with 1% FBS) and surface stained for 30 min at 4C in FACS Buffer supplemented with the following antibody cocktail: anti-human CD3-PerCP/Cy5.5 (BioLegend, cat# 300328, at 1:50), anti-human CD335 or NKp46-PE (BioLegend, cat# 331908, at 1:50), anti-human CD69-APC (BioLegend, cat# 310910, at 1:50). The FACS buffer also contained a viability probe (ThermoFisher Scientific, LIVE/DEAD Fixable Violet Dead Cell Stain Kit, for 405 nm excitation, cat# L34964, at 1:1000). After staining the cells were washed twice with FACS Buffer, fixed in 2% PFA in 1×PBS for 15 min at RT, washed again with FACS Buffer to remove PFA and analyzed on BD FACSAria II. To evaluate cytotoxic functions in some experiments anti-human CD107a-AlexaFluor 488 (BioLegend, cat# 328610) was added directly to the co-cultures at 1:20 (10 μl/well) 5 h prior to recovery and surface staining followed by addition of Monensin at 1:1000 an hour later for additional 4 h incubation at 37 °C (BioLegend, cat# 420701-BL, 1000×).
Intracellular stain
To evaluate IFNγ production in activated NK, NKT and T cells, in some experiments Brefeldin A was added at 1:1000 an hour after stimulation or 4 h prior to recovery and surface staining (BioLegend, cat# 420601-BL, 1000×). Monensin and Brefeldin A were added together when cells were to be evaluated for both IFNγ production and CD107a surface exposure. Following standard surface and viability staining cells were processed using the eBioscience Intracellular Staining Buffer Set (ThermoFisher, cat# 00-5523). Briefly, following surface staining with or without anti-CD107a-AlexaFluor 488, cells were fixed for 30 min with 1 part Fixation/Permeabilization Concentrate (cat# 00-5123) and 3 parts of Fixation/Permeabilization Diluent (cat# 00-5223), washed twice with 200 μl/well Permeabilization Buffer 10× (cat# 00-8333), diluted 1:10 in double distilled water), and stained with anti-human IFNγ-APC antibody (BioLegend, cat# 502512, at 1:50) in Permeabilization Buffer for 1 h at RT. Cells were washed twice in Permeabilization Buffer, fixed in 2% PFA in 1xPBS for 15 min at RT, washed again with FACS Buffer to remove PFA and analyzed on BD FACSAria II.
NK cell immunosuppression
To evaluate the extent of ADSC-induced immunosuppression following the 48 h co-culture of PBMC with autologous or allogeneic ADSCs in the presence or absence of virus, the 250,000 PBMCs co-cultures were subjected to an additional brief 4 h stimulation at 37 °C (incubator) with 250,000 K562 (physiological stimulation of NK cells) or non-physiological stimulation with PMA/Ionomycin to assess the extent of NK cell viability/irreversible suppression. PMA (25 ng/ml final, Sigma, cat# P8139-5MG, diluted in DMSO to 5 mg/ml stock) and Ionomycin (1 μg/ml final, Sigma, cat# I-0634-1MG, diluted in DMSO to 1 mg/ml stock) were added as 4× solutions in medium. To evaluate cytotoxic activity of NK cells, the PBMC co-cultures were also stimulated in the presence of anti-human CD107a antibody in combination with Monensin/Brefeldin A as described above. Note that CD69+ surface expression was evaluated in duplicate wells in the absence of Monensin/Brefeldin A treatment due to severe interference.
Plaque assay
Virus containing samples were stored at − 80 °C and subjected to a three-fold freeze (− 80 °C)/thaw (+ 37 C) cycle followed by sonication on ice-cold water for three 1 min intervals one min apart. Sonicated samples were serially diluted in vaccinia virus infection medium (DMEM supplemented with 2% FBS, l-Glutamine, Penicillin/Streptomycin). Plaque assays were performed in 24-well plates in duplicate wells. Briefly 200,000 CV1 cells were plated in 1 ml D10 medium per well overnight. Supernatants were aspirated and tenfold serial dilutions of the virus containing sample were applied to the CV-1 monolayer at 200 μl/well. Plates were incubated for 1 h at 37C (incubator) with manual shaking every 20 min. 1 ml CMC medium was layered gently on top of the cells and plates were incubated for 48 h. Plaques were counted after fixing the cells by toping the wells with Crystal Violet solution (1.3% Crystal violet (Sigma-Aldrich, C6158), 5% Ethanol (Pure Ethanol, Molecular Biology Grade, VWR, 71006-012), 30% Formaldehyde (37% v/v formaldehyde, Fisher, cat # F79-9), and double distilled water) for 3–5 h at room temperature, followed by washing the plates in tap water and drying overnight. CMC overlay medium was prepared by autoclaving 15 g Carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt (Sigma-Aldrich, C4888) and re-suspending with overnight stirring at RT in 1 L DMEM, supplemented with Pen/Strep, l-Glutamine, and 5% FBS, short-term storage at 4 °C.
MTT viability assay
MTT assays were performed as previously described. Briefly, MTT (ThermoFisher, cat# M-6494, 5 mg/mL stock in 1×PBS, kept at− 20 °C) was added to cells (10 μl to 100 μl cells/well) on 96-well flat-bottom plates at a final concentration of 5 μg/mL and incubated for 1–2 h at 37 °C (incubator). Following incubation, cells were lysed by adding 100 μl of Isopropanol: 1 M HCl (24:1, supplemented with 10% Triton ×100, Sigma-Aldrich, ×100-100ML) and vigorous pipetting to dissolve the Formazan. Plates were read on Tecan InfiniteR 200 Pro and the MTT signal was measured within 1 h by subtracting OD at 650 nm from OD at 570 nm. Cells without MTT or Blank/Medium Alone wells were included as controls to eliminate background signals.
Microscopy
Time course microscopic observations of virus infection were done on a Keyence All-in-one Fluorescence Microscope BZ-X700 Series. ADSCs were engineered to express eGFP and were followed on the GFP channel (1 s exposure) while virus infection with the TurboFP635-engineered L14 virus was monitored on the TRITC channel (3 s exposure). Images at 4× or 10× magnification were collected and overlaid with bright field (phase contrast, 1/50 s exposure).
HLA and KIR analysis
HLA and KIR/MIC typing analysis was done through NGS by ProImmune (Oxford, UK) and Scisco Genetics (Seattle, USA), respectively. The presence/absence of the known KIR ligands A3/A11 (HLA-A), Bw4 (HLA-B) and C1/C2 (HLA-C) epitopes in the HLA alleles of our PBMC and ADSC donors was taken from
http://www.dorak.info/mhc/nkcell.html. The − 21 M/T (Methionine/Threonine) dimorphism at the anchor amino acid from the leader sequence that predicts strong/weak binding and presentation of HLA-B-derived leader peptides by HLA-E, which provides inhibitory signaling though the NKG2A/CD94 receptors on NK cells, was taken from the Immuno Polymorphism Database (IPD) at
http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ipd/.
Data analysis and statistics
Data was plotted and analyzed for statistical significance using licensed Graph Prism software. Statistical significance was evaluated with the two-tailed Student’s T-test, p < 0.05, and statistically significant correlation was shown with the Pearson coefficient and corresponding p values.
Discussion
The goal of the work presented in the current manuscript was to evaluate the potential of using off-the-shelf allogeneic adipose-derived stem cells as a delivery vehicle to potentiate oncolytic virotherapy, leveraging the unique abilities of mesenchymal stem cells to amplify vaccinia virus and to transiently suppress anti-viral immunity. The immune system is known to play a dual role in oncolytic virotherapy of cancer. While the induction or potentiation of tumor-specific immunity is believed to play an important role in the long-term therapeutic efficacy of oncolytic viruses [
69], the presence of innate and adaptive anti-viral immune barriers can significantly restrict the extent of direct vaccinia virus-mediated oncolysis. Importantly, recent data indicate that tumor burden might directly correlate with inadequate responsiveness to immunotherapy [
70]. Limited oncolysis and the lack of immediate reduction in tumor burden can therefore compromise the immuno-stimulatory effects of oncolytic viruses and greatly reduce their therapeutic efficacy.
Improving direct oncolysis is contingent on designing effective strategies to overcome the existent immunological barriers to oncolytic viruses that include complement/antibody neutralization, the intrinsic tumor cell anti-viral interferon responses, as well as the elimination of infected cells by innate and adaptive immune cell populations such as NK cells and T cells. The NK cell responses appear to be of particular interest due to their innate characteristics and immediate nature, in sharp contrast to the time needed for expansion of virus-specific T cells [
71,
72]. Of note, the latter branches of adaptive immunity appear to be critical for the ultimate clearance of the virus from the patient and warrant safety as well as therapeutic efficacy associated with the induction of tumor-specific immunity.
The therapeutic efficacy of oncolytic viruses is often restricted by the limited permissiveness of the tumor to virus infection and amplification [
73], which reflects patient specific differences, including intrinsic tumor cell resistance [
74], functional interferon anti-viral responses [
4], or the presence of non-permissive tumor-associated stroma [
75‐
77]. In tumors with relatively modest permissiveness, vaccinia virus might have insufficient time to efficiently colonize the tumor before it gets eliminated by the innate and adaptive anti-viral immune responses. Augmenting the oncolytic potential of vaccinia virus in such circumstances might therefore require a strategy that combines efficient delivery with a boosted local virus amplification that together could provide a favorable environment where virus spread and colonization occurs faster than the induction of protective anti-viral state.
Ex-vivo expanded autologous or allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells represent a unique delivery platform that offers the combined power of boosted local virus amplification and the ability to transiently suppress anti-viral innate and adaptive immunity, which is key to the success of oncolytic virotherapy in vivo. Given that the application of personalized autologous MSCs is an approach that is rather expensive and impractical for clinical development, the feasibility and limitations of using established and easily available allogeneic stem cell lines needs to be evaluated and investigated further. In the current study, we demonstrate that the impressive ability of mesenchymal stem cells to amplify vaccinia virus as well as to recruit and sensitize tumor cells to virus infection might significantly improve the therapeutic potential and broaden efficacy against resistant and low-permissive tumors. In addition, MSCs demonstrate the ability to effectively suppress anti-viral NK cell responses that represent the earliest and most significant innate immune barrier to tumor colonization and oncolysis [
71,
72]. Of note, while MSCs appear to be immunosuppressive against NK cells in both autologous and allogeneic settings, as to date it has been shown in the literature, we demonstrate that their immunosuppressive ability and virus amplification potential remain subject to significant allogeneic barriers associated with the production of IFNγ and direct cytotoxicity by both NK and T cells. Such rapid and exaggerated allogeneic responses or the outright rejection of the stem cells, therefore, represent a significant obstacle to the use of off-the-shelf MSC- or alternative cell-based delivery platforms in the clinic.
The hypoimmunogenic and immunosuppressive characteristics of mesenchymal stem cells have justified their extensive use in the treatment of various autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, demonstrating similar persistence and equivalent therapeutic efficacy in both autologous and allogeneic settings. Conflicting reports demonstrate the superiority of using autologous stem cells, which probably reflects different disease background or requirements for brief immunosuppression versus long-term persistence and tissue repair [
78]. In fact, numerous studies have already challenged the paradigm that allogeneic stem cells can be used in a one-size-fits-all universal donor setting, due to their hypoimmunogenic features. Instead, it becomes increasingly clear that MSC are not immune privileged and can induce allogeneic responses resulting in their ultimate rejection [
79,
80].
Here, we argue that, to successfully utilize the potential of MSCs for the purposes of oncolytic virotherapy, it is necessary to build a much deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms that control the balance between their immune evasive and immunogenic characteristics, and specifically how these are affected by the inflammatory environment associated with vaccinia virus infection. Importantly, long-term persistence of the allogeneic stem cells is irrelevant for the purposes of oncolytic virotherapy, while their short-term immunosuppressive and virus amplification potentials are essential and indispensable. Our demonstration that the combination of IFNγ production and direct cytotoxicity are associated with inability of the allogeneic Trojan horse to deliver and amplify vaccinia virus is critically important for the advancement of this therapeutic modality, as IFNγ plays a key role in both the control of vaccinia virus infection and the regulation of the immunosuppressive properties of MSCs. Multiple studies have demonstrated that exposure to IFNγ can significantly improve the immunosuppressive functions of MSCs by upregulation of IDO, iNOS/NO, COX2/PGE, and PD-L1 [
50]. This would give stem cells the unique ability to support virus colonization by subverting IFNγ-driven immune activation and anti-viral immunity, but previous studies as well as our own findings indicate that IFNγ can also exacerbate small allogeneic differences and increase the immunogenicity of stem cells, potentially through up-regulated expression of MHC Class I/II or other costimulatory molecules. It should be emphasized that, while IFNγ-pre-treatment might be beneficial to enhance MSC-mediated immunosuppression for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, where long-term engraftment is unnecessary or unaffected by minor allogeneic differences, this is certainly not the case with oncolytic virus approaches that are critically dependent on the ability of the Trojan horse to amplify the virus. Accordingly, inappropriate and rapid IFNγ responses against the allogeneic stem cells might be sufficient to inactivate the Trojan horse, even in the absence of outright rejection and compromised persistence in vivo.
Our findings reveal that the responses to vaccinia virus and allogeneic stem cells alone or in combination are highly patient-specific, thus demonstrating the need for further mechanistic studies aimed to validate the relative contribution of IFNγ and direct cytotoxicity for the inactivation of the allogeneic Trojan horse. Understanding the basis for this patient-specific permissiveness versus resistance to the Trojan horse is challenging as it can reflect multiple sources of variability, including MHC I/II mismatches, differences in the MHC-binding Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR Haplotype or ligands) or differential frequency/activation status of innate immune cell populations such as NK or NKT cells. The use of allogeneic stem cells for oncolytic virus delivery is greatly facilitated by the lack of requirement for long-term survival and engraftment of the cells, making this approach likely to work across insignificant MHC mismatch barriers and restricting patient-specific resistance to relatively small groups of patients, who can be excluded from clinical trials with the use of simple diagnostic assays, as the ones presented in this study. Alternatively, a more frequent or broader patient-specific resistance to allogeneic Trojan horses would require the establishment of allogeneic MSC banks and matching the patients to the available stem cell lines, based on MHC typing data or in vitro diagnostic assays, which take into account all of the complex immunological characteristics of patients and particularly those conferring rapid and exaggerated anti-viral/-stem cell responses able to significantly limit therapeutic efficacy in highly resistant individuals.
Given that amplification of the virus in the stem cells proceeds within hours to several days after infection, while it takes more than a week for the adaptive T cell responses to contain virus spread and oncolysis, it becomes evident that the kinetics of the anti-viral/stem cell responses within the first few days of treatment would be critical for the ability of the Trojan horse to have a significant therapeutic effect in vivo. Consequently, the crosstalk and interplay between different innate and adaptive branches of the immune system need to be further investigated as these might be directly associated with the speed and magnitude of the anti-viral/stem cell immunity. The combination of exaggerated innate immune mechanisms sensitizing adaptive immunity against the virus or the allogeneic stem cells can be particularly detrimental. We were very interested by the finding that a patient can be broadly resistant to several allogeneic stem cell lines and that this broad resistance was also associated with unusually high frequency of NKp46 + CD
3+ NKT-like cells, which were also the only population that expanded in numbers in response to both the virus and the allogeneic stem cells. Unfortunately, our attempts to link this NKT-like population of cells with effector functions able to directly interfere with the Trojan horse were unsuccessful, as these cells didn’t manifest any significant contribution to IFNγ production or cytotoxic activity. NKT cells are known to play a role in the control of viral infections, but their involvement in vaccinia virus responses and immunity hasn’t been investigated fully yet. The fact that this population of cells is unlikely to be responsible for the direct rejection or inactivation of the Trojan horse does not eliminate the possibility that NKT or NKT-like cells are critically important for directing and accelerating coordinated NK and T cell responses against the stem cells or the virus. Detailed kinetic and mechanistic studies would be necessary to evaluate the possibility that innate immune cells like NKT cells provide early cytokine help sensitizing NK and T cell to the presence of the virus and/or potential allogeneic differences, as suggested by some of our preliminary data (Additional file
7: Figure S7D). The importance of the crosstalk between the innate (NK/NKT cells) and adaptive (B/T cells) arms of the immune system, as revealed by our data, suggests the existence of correlation between patient-specific NK and T cell responses. Despite the rather limited cohort of PBMC donors tested, it becomes evident that patients mount coordinated NK, NKT and T cell responses against the virus and allogeneic stem cells (Fig.
5d). On the other hand, the comparative responsiveness to the virus and stem cells appears discordant and highly patient-specific (Additional file
5: Figure S5C), which cannot be explained by HLA typing data alone and suggests the involvement of innate immunological differences that might not be the same with respect to the virus or possible MHC mismatches. These innate immunological differences can be associated with differences in the NK or NKT cells and more precisely with the balance of signaling through their activating versus inhibitory receptors such as NKG2A/NKG2C/NKG2D or KIR receptors, which like certain HLA alleles are highly patient-specific and have already been linked to resistance/susceptibility to infectious agents, autoimmune diseases, and cancer [
81‐
86].
Overall, our data indicate that while autologous mesenchymal stem cells are potentially the optimal vehicles for the delivery and amplification of oncolytic viruses, the use of properly matched allogeneic stem cell lines in combination with robust companion diagnostic assays could provide a more practical and commercially viable alternative that guarantees consistent stem cell quality and validated amplification potential. This approach also provides the unique opportunity to utilize readily available off-the-shelf cell-based delivery platforms in a highly efficient personalized fashion.
Authors’ contributions
DDD and AAS conceptualized the project. DDD (designed/performed experiments, analyzed data, and wrote the manuscript); AS (generation of ADSC lines and eGFP-transfection); IM (SVF and PBMC donor coordinator); DN (recombinant vaccinia virus generation and plaque purification); MOK (established ADSC characterization and expansion protocols); IP and AV (preparation and validation of virus stocks, GFP transfection of stem cells, established MTT and plaque assays to evaluate sensitivity of tumor cell lines to VV); EL and MB (provided SVF for ex vivo expansion of ADSCs), BM (MHC Analysis); Aladar A. Szalay (coordinated the project and edited the manuscript); All authors read and approved the final manuscript.