Replication-deficient adenovirus-mediated transfer of B7-1 (CD80) cDNA induces anti-tumour immunity in isolated human lung cancer

OBJECTIVE: Interaction between the co-stimulatory molecule B7-1 (CD80) on antigen-presenting cells and its counter-receptor CD28 on T lymphocytes plays a key role in the induction of cell-mediated immune responses. Many tumours, including lung cancer, lack expression of B7-1 and this has been suggested to contribute to the failure of immune recognition of these diseases. Based on this knowledge, we hypothesized that the co-stimulatory signal delivered through the B7-1 molecule expressed on lung cancer cells using replication deficient adenovirus vector would induce efficient tumour immunity in T lymphocytes. METHODOLOGY: To evaluate this hypothesis, we constructed two adenovirus vectors: AdCMVhB7 (an E1-deleted-Ad5-based vector containing human B7-1 cDNA driven by cytomegalovirus immediate early promoter and enhancer) and AdNull (same vector as above without expression of exogenous gene) as control. Using these adenovirus vectors, efficient generation of tumour immunity in T lymphocytes was studied using primary cultured lung cancer cells and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) obtained from patients with lung cancer. RESULTS: Inoculation of lung cancer cells with 10 multiplicity of infection of AdCMVhB7 resulted in rapid and efficient cell surface expression of B7-1 molecule (> 90% of cells at 24 h). Cytolytic activity of PBL in 51Cr-release assay (E/T = 40) demonstrated that effector lymphocytes induced by hB7-1 (+) lung cancer cells treated with AdCMVhB7could lyse parental lung cancer cells hB7-1 (-). In contrast, effector lymphocytes induced by lung cancer cells treated with AdNull as control virus or PBS as control could not lyse parental lung cancer cells at all. Furthermore, cytolytic activity of the effector lymphocytes induced by B7-1-transduced lung cancer cells was inhibited by addition of anti-CD3 antibody. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that primary-cultured lung cancer cells treated with AdCMVhB7 would efficiently generate tumour immunity in T lymphocytes. Adenovirus-mediated-hB7-1 gene transfer may be a useful means for gene therapy of lung cancer using adoptive immunotherapy.