Sarcoma eradication by doxorubicin and targeted TNF relies upon CD8+ T cell recognition of a retroviral antigen

Antibody-cytokine complexes may offer new tools to treat cancer. Here we show how TNF-linked antibodies, which recognize tumor-selective splice isoforms of fibronectin (F8-TNF), can be exploited to eradicate sarcomas in immunocompetent mice. We treated mice bearing WEHI-164 fibrosarcoma with a combination of F8-TNF and doxorubicin, curing the majority of treated animals (29/37). Notably, cured mice were resistant to re-challenge not only by WEHI-164 cells but also heterologous C51 or CT26 colorectal tumor cells in a CD8+ T cell-dependent process. Mechanistic analyses revealed that each tumor cell line presented AH1, a common endogenous retroviral peptide. Numbers of AH1-specific CD8+ T cells exhibiting cytotoxic capacity were increased by F8-TNF plus doxorubicin treatment, arguing that cognate CD8+ T cells contributed to tumor eradication. Sequence analysis of T cell receptors of CD8+ T cells revealed the presence of H-2Ld/AH1-specific T cells and an expansion of sequence diversity in treated mice. Overall, our findings provide evidence that retroviral genes contribute to tumoral immune surveillance in a process that can be generally boosted by F8-TNF and doxorubicin treatment.

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