Cytokine-induced killer cells co-culture with complete tumor antigen loaded DC cells have enhanced selective cytotoxicity on Carboplatin resistant retinoblastoma cells

WANG Y; KUNDA P.E; LIN J; WANG H; CHEN X; LIU Q; LIU T

ONCOLOGY REPORTS

SPANDIDOS PUBL LTD

Lugar: Atenas; Año: 2013 p. 1841 - 1850

1021-335X

Retinoblastoma (RB) is a challenging disease thataffects mostly young children. Chemical therapy has beenshown to have limitations during clinical practice, principallybecause of the ability of RB to become resistant to the treatment.Nevertheless, chemotherapy is still the main treatmentfor RB, and immunotherapy has become a promising treatmentfor most solid tumors with fewer side effects than traditionaltherapies. In this study, we explored the antitumor effects ofcytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells co-cultured with dendriticcells (DCs) pulsed with complete tumor antigens (DC-Ag).Cytotoxicity and specificity were evaluated on an RB cell line(RB-Y79), on a human normal retina cell line (hTERT-RPE1)and a carboplatin-resistant RB cell line. Our results showedthat CIK differentiation and cytotoxicity were enhanced byco-culturing CIKs with DC-Ag. Moreover, the co-cultureimproved the CIK proliferation rate by increasing IL-6 anddecreasing IL-10 levels in the culture medium. Furthermore,the use of DC-Ag-CIK cells had little effect on normal retinalcells but high cytotoxicity on RB cells even on carboplatinresistantretinoblastoma cells. This is the first study showingthat DC cells pulsed with the complete tumor antigen improveproliferation, differentiation and cytotoxic activity of CIKsspecific not only for RB but also for the chemotherapy-resistantform of the malady. Thus highly efficient immunotherapybased on DC-Ag-CIK cells may be a potential effective and safe mean of treating RB especially to patients where traditionalchemical therapy has failed