Abstract
Due to its immunogenicity and overexpression concomitant with leukemia progression, Wilms tumor protein 1 (WT1) is of particular interest for immunotherapy of AML relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). So far, WT1-specific T-cell responses have mainly been induced by vaccination with peptides presented by certain HLA alleles. However, this approach is still not widely applicable in clinical practice due to common limitations of HLA restriction. Dendritic cell (DC) vaccines electroporated with mRNA encoding full-length protein have also been tested for generating WT1-derived peptides for presentation to T-cells. Alternatively, an efficient and broad WT1 peptide presentation could be elicited by triggering receptor-mediated protein endocytosis of DCs. Therefore, we developed antibody fusion proteins consisting of an antibody specific for the DEC205 endocytic receptor on human DCs and various fragments of WT1 as DC-targeting recombinant WT1 vaccines (anti-hDEC205-WT1). Of all anti-hDEC205-WT1 fusion proteins designed for overcoming insufficient expression, anti-hDEC205-WT110–35, anti-hDEC205-WT191–138, anti-hDEC205-WT1223–273, and anti-hDEC205-WT1324–371 were identified in good yields. The anti-hDEC205-WT191–138 was capable of directly inducing ex vivo T-cell responses by co-incubation of the fusion protein-loaded monocyte-derived mature DCs and autologous T-cells of either healthy or HSCT individuals. Furthermore, the DC-targeted WT191–138-induced specific T-cells showed a strong cytotoxic activity by lysing WT1-overexpressing THP-1 leukemia cells in vitro while sparing WT1-negative hematopoietic cells. In conclusion, our approach identifies four WT1 peptide-antibody fusion proteins with sufficient production and introduces an alternative vaccine that could be easily translated into clinical practice to improve WT1-directed antileukemia immune responses after allo-HSCT.
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Abbreviations
- aa:
-
Amino acid
- AML:
-
Acute myeloid leukemia
- CAR:
-
Chimeric antigen receptor
- CHO:
-
Chinese hamster ovary
- CHO-hDEC205:
-
hDEC205-stably expressing CHO
- CMV:
-
Cytomegalovirus
- CTL:
-
Cytotoxic T lymphocyte
- ET:
-
Effector to target ratio
- ELISPOT:
-
Enzyme-linked immuno spot
- FCS:
-
Fetal calf serum
- GM-CSF:
-
Granulocyte–macrophage colony stimulating factor
- GpL:
-
Gaussia princeps luciferase
- GvL:
-
Graft-versus-leukemia
- hDEC205:
-
Human DEC205 endocytic receptor
- HEK293:
-
Human embryonic kidney
- HLA:
-
Human leukocyte antigen
- HSCT:
-
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
- IC50 :
-
50% inhibitory concentration
- ICS:
-
Intracellular cytokine staining
- IFN:
-
Interferon
- IL:
-
Interleukin
- K d :
-
Dissociation constant
- K i :
-
Dissociation constant of inhibitor
- LAL:
-
Limulus amebocyte lysate
- MDS:
-
Myelodysplastic syndrome
- moDCs:
-
Monocyte-derived dendritic cells
- NBT/BCIP:
-
Nitro blue tetrazolium/5-Bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl phosphate
- PBMCs:
-
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells
- PHA-L:
-
Phytohemagglutinin-L
- pM:
-
Picomolar
- PN:
-
Patient number
- RT-PCR:
-
Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction
- scFv:
-
Single chain variable fragment
- SDS-PAGE:
-
Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
- TAA:
-
Tumor-associated antigen
- TCR:
-
T-cell receptor
- TNF:
-
Tumor necrosis factor
- WT1:
-
Wilms tumor protein
- WT1_D:
-
Isoform D of WT1 protein
- WT1full :
-
WT1 in full-length
- WT1major and WT1small :
-
Major and small fragments of WT1 protein
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Acknowledgements
We thank our colleagues in the Division of Molecular Internal Medicine for their assistance and Professor Matthias Eyrich for his critical discussion. We also thank Dr. Torsten Steinbrunn for proofreading of the manuscript. Nergui Dagvadorj was supported by scholarships from the Government of Mongolia, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation of Germany, the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF) of the University of Würzburg, Germany and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Germany.
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Dagvadorj, N., Deuretzbacher, A., Weisenberger, D. et al. Targeting of the WT191–138 fragment to human dendritic cells improves leukemia-specific T-cell responses providing an alternative approach to WT1-based vaccination. Cancer Immunol Immunother 66, 319–332 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-016-1938-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-016-1938-y