In the spleens of young, adult mice there exist naturally occurring killer lymphocytes with specificity for mouse Moloney leukemia cells. The lytic activity was directed against syngeneic or allogeneic Moloney leukemia cells to a similar extent, but was primarily expressed when tested against in vitro grown leukemia cells. Two leukemias of non-Moloney origin were resistant and so was the mastocytoma line P815. Although killer activity varied between different strains of mice, the specificity of lysis was the same as indicated by competition experiments using unlabeled Moloney or other tumor cells as inhibitors in the cytotoxic assays. Capacity to compete and sensitivy to lysis by the killer cells were found to be highly positively correlated. Analysis of the kinetics of the cytotoxic assay revealed a rapid induction of lysis within one to four hours, arguing against any conventional in vitro induction of immune response. No evidence was found of soluble factors playing any role in the cytolytic assay.

Normal mice contain cytolytic cells with specificity for in vitro grown mouse Moloney leukemia cells. Such killer cells are most frequent in the spleens; lymph node and bone marrow contain less and thymus virtually no killer activity. Peak activity is found around one to three months of age. Spleen cells from genetically athymic mice are as active killer cells as those from normal mice of the same strain. Treatment with anti-theta serum plus complement followed by removal of adherent and surface Ig positive cells by filtration through anti-Ig columns will leave between 1-5% of the original spleen cell population from a normal mouse. These cells have the morphology of small lymphocytes and perhaps contain all of the total original killer activity of the spleen against the Moloney leukemia cells. Such killer enriched cells are devoid of T and B lymphocytes and largely fail to function in antibody induced, cell-mediated lysis against antibody-coated chicken erythrocytes. It is concluded that the spontaneous selective cytotoxic activity of normal mouse spleen cells against Moloney leukemia cells is exerted by small lymphocytes of yet undefined nature.

During the past decades, anticancer immunotherapy has evolved from a promising therapeutic option to a robust clinical reality. Many immunotherapeutic regimens are now approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for use in cancer patients, and many others are being investigated as standalone therapeutic interventions or combined with conventional treatments in clinical studies. Immunotherapies may be subdivided into “passive” and “active” based on their ability to engage the host immune system against cancer. Since the anticancer activity of most passive immunotherapeutics (including tumor-targeting monoclonal antibodies) also relies on the host immune system, this classification does not properly reflect the complexity of the drug-host-tumor interaction. Alternatively, anticancer immunotherapeutics can be classified according to their antigen specificity. While some immunotherapies specifically target one (or a few) defined tumor-associated antigen(s), others operate in a relatively non-specific manner and boost natural or therapy-elicited anticancer immune responses of unknown and often broad specificity. Here, we propose a critical, integrated classification of anticancer immunotherapies and discuss the clinical relevance of these approaches.

It is generally accepted that tumours arise through the accumulation of several changes affecting the control of cell growth. Recent advances in molecular biology have made it possible to define some of these changes in molecular terms and to trace the steps by which certain tumours evolve.

The K562 cell line derived from a CML patient in blast crisis was examined for properties of B and T lymphocytes and cell lines. K562 lacks the B markers of immunoglobulins, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome and associated nuclear antigen, and receptors for EBV. A low proportion of cells from rosettes with sheep erythrocytes, the frequency of which is considerably increased after neuraminidase treatment. Unlike B lines but like T lines, K562 cells are lysed rapidly by C'/Fc receptor-positive human blood leukocytes and do not stimulate MLC reactions. On the other hand, K562 lacks T antigen, high radiosensitivity and sensitivity to growth inhibition by thymidine. The cells do not contain N-APase, an enzyme found in all lines derived from lymphoid cells and in lymphoproliferative diseases. By scanning electron microscopy, K562 cells were seen to be rounded and relatively smooth, with small numbers of short microvilli resembling undifferentiated leukemic cells. A few cells had narrow ridge-like profiles and small ruffles similar to granulocytic leukemic cells. K562 is strongly positive for immunoglobuln Fc receptors and pinocytosis, but does not phagocytose or mediate antibody-dependent phagocytosis or cytolysis. Among histochemical stains, K562 is positive for esterase, lipid, and acid phosphatase. There seems to be no doubt that K562 is not a B cell line. While it has some T cell properties, these are not exclusive. Some of its characteristics indicate that it is probably not lymphoid. Due to its low level of differentiation, its nature cannot be stated with certainty. On the basis of the possible presence of the cellular marker of chronic myeloid leukemia, the Ph chromosome, it may be regarded as belonging to the granulocytic series of cells.

Altered DNA methylation occurs ubiquitously in human cancer from the earliest measurable stages. A cogent approach to understanding the mechanism and timing of altered DNA methylation is to analyze it in the context of carcinogenesis by a defined agent. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a human oncogenic herpesvirus associated with lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but also used commonly in the laboratory to immortalize human B-cells in culture. Here we have performed whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of normal B-cells, activated B-cells, and EBV-immortalized B-cells from the same three individuals, in order to identify the impact of transformation on the methylome. Surprisingly, large-scale hypomethylated blocks comprising two-thirds of the genome were induced by EBV immortalization but not by B-cell activation per se. These regions largely corresponded to hypomethylated blocks that we have observed in human cancer, and they were associated with gene-expression hypervariability, similar to human cancer, and consistent with a model of epigenomic change promoting tumor cell heterogeneity. We also describe small-scale changes in DNA methylation near CpG islands. These results suggest that methylation disruption is an early and critical step in malignant transformation.

The isolation and establishment in vitro of a hitherto undescribed type of lymphocyte designated D.G.-75 is reported. The original inoculum was derived from the pleural effusion of a child with a primary abdominal lymphoma, which clinically and histologically resembled Burkitt's lymphoma. In addition to the absence of the EBV genome and EBV receptors, this line possesses a number of other properties which distinguish it from previously described lymphoblastoid cell lines. It has different growth characteristics and morphology; does not form EAC or E rosettes (representative of B and T) cell surface markers, respectively); possesses IgM-kappa immunoglobulins on the cell surface (B lymphocyte), has an unusually high cap-forming ability and low agglutinability with fluorescent concanavalin A. One homologue of the No.14 chromosome pair possesses extra chromatin material as revealed on chromosome banding. This abnormal chromosome marker is similar to that described in biopsies and cultured tumor cells from patients with African Burkitt's lymphoma.

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