Vaccination with autologous endothelium inhibits angiogenesis and metastasis of colon cancer through autoimmunity

Abstract

ngiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels, is essential for tumor growth and metastasis. [1][2][3] In adults, angiogenesis is infrequent due to the balance between inhibitors and stimulators of angiogenesis. But under conditions of hypoxia, tumor cells turn-on the angiogenic switch by secretion of angiogenic stimulators that activate endothelial cells to proliferate and form new blood vessels. 4,5) Proliferation and expression of antigens critical to angiogenesis are two specific characteristics that distinguish angiogenic endothelial cells from quiescent endothelium of normal vasculature. Monoclonal antibodies and synthetic molecules targeting self-angiogenic antigens have been shown to inhibit tumor growth in animal models and were recently used in clinical trials.6-10) However, relatively high doses of these therapeutics have to be administered for long periods of time due to their short biological half-lives. Furthermore, antigens highly specific for angiogenic endothelium still remain to be isolated. These drawbacks should be overcome by active immunization with whole endothelial cells. Recently, active immunization with xenogeneic, but not autologous, endothelial cells was shown to inhibit the growth of experimental tumors in mice.11) However, from the viewpoint of clinical applicability of endothelial vaccines, the use of autologous endothelial cells would be preferable, since xenogeneic immunization may cause a species-specific immune reaction, with undesirable consequences. In the present study, therefore, we aimed to test the usefulness of autologous endothelial vaccine in the treatment of metastatic lesions that are highly dependent on tumor angiogenesis. For this purpose, we immunized BALB/c mice with a vaccine of glutaraldehyde-fixed murine hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells (HSEs) in a lung metastasis model of colon cancer. We demonstrated that vaccination with autologous HSEs significantly inhibited the development of metastasis through an autoimmune response that was mediated by antibodies and cytotoxic T lymphocytes specifically reactive with endothelial, but not tumor cells. In addition, a vaccine of xenogeneic human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was tested in the same experimental setting, and the effects of both vaccines were compared, both in the animals and in in vitro immunological assays. Materials and MethodsCell culture. Hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells (HSEs), a cell line isolated from BALB/c mouse, 12) were kindly provided by Dr. Tatsuro Irimura (Faculty of Pharmacology, the University of Tokyo). HSEs were grown in DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) and 1% antibiotic/antimycotic (i.e., 100 U/ml penicillin G, 100 µg/ml streptomycin sulfate, 250 ng/ml amphotericin B; Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY), in an atmosphere containing 5% CO 2 at 37°C. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were isolated from fresh umbilical cords (obtained with patients' informed consent, from the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, the University of Tokyo)...

Vaccination with xenogeneic tumor endothelial proteins isolated in situ inhibits tumor angiogenesis and spontaneous metastasis

“…8 In contrast, more dramatic inhibition of primary tumor growth was previously reported using multiple angiogenic antigen-targeted vaccination. [15][16][17][18][19][37][38][39] This might be resulted from differences in tumor cell malignancy, the number of injected tumor cells and strength of immune response. Interestingly, although the tumor size was not affected, the intratumoral microvessel density was significantly lower in the vaccinated mice than that in control mice (Fig.…”

“…35,36 Previous reports on antiangiogenesis immunotherapy against multiple endothelial targets were all based on vaccines of endothelial cells from normal tissues or cell culture. [15][16][17][18][19][37][38][39] Although the cultured endothelial cells express certain angiogenesis-associated proteins which also exist on the microvessels of tumor tissues, such as VEGF receptors, integrin a v b 3 and endoglin, they may lose the expression of numerous other endothelial proteins expressed in vivo. For example, 40% of the endothelial surface proteins expressed in rat lung in vivo were not detectable in rat lung endothelial cells in culture.…”

“…11 Dendritic cells pulsed with angiogenesis-associated antigens [12][13][14][15] and endothelial-dendritic cell hybrids 16 have also proved effective in angiogenesis inhibition. Because of the fact that angiogenic endothelial antigens remain largely unrevealed, fixed human umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs), 17 murine hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells 18 or viable HUVECs 19 were used as vaccines to elicit autoimmunity that attacked tumor endothelium and hence inhibited tumor growth.…”

An effective vaccine against colon cancer in mice: Use of recombinant adenovirus interleukin-12 transduced dendritic cells

“…A new adjuvant therapeutic method is needed in order to improve the 5-year survival rate of patients with colon cancer. Today, tumor immunotherapy for colon cancer is extremely appealing [4,5] .…”

“…A new adjuvant therapeutic method is needed in order to improve the 5-year survival rate of patients with colon cancer. Today, tumor immunotherapy for colon cancer is extremely appealing [4,5] .Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen presenting cells (APCs) that both initiate and modulate the immune response [6] . DCs are cells in the pathway of antigen capture and presentation to T cells, with the Abstract AIM: To investigate the effect of a vaccine with recombinant adenovirus interleukin-12 (AdVIL-12) transduced dendritic cells (DCs) against colon cancer in mice.…”