Antitumor activity of IL-2/anti-IL-2 mAb immunocomplexes exerts synergism with that of N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide copolymer-bound doxorubicin conjugate due to its low immunosuppressive activity.

Interleukin (IL)-2 has been approved for treatment of metastatic renal cancer and malignant melanoma. However, its unfavorable pharmacologic properties, severe side effects and the negative role of IL-2 in maintaining T regulatory cells are severe drawbacks. It has been shown that immunocomplexes of IL-2 and certain anti-IL-2 mAbs possess selective and high stimulatory activity in vivo. Here, we show that IL-2/S4B6 mAb immunocomplexes expand not only CD122(high) subsets and newly activated CD8(+) T cells but also natural killer T cells and γδ T cells. Further, we demonstrate that natural killer (NK) cells expanded by IL-2/S4B6 mAb immunocomplexes in vivo have high cytolytic activity, which can be further increased by coadministration of IL-12. We also demonstrate that IL-2/S4B6 mAb immunocomplexes possess noticeable antitumor activity in two syngeneic mouse tumor models, namely BCL1 leukemia and B16F10 melanoma, but only if administered early in tumor progression. To effectively treat established tumors, we administered the tumor-bearing mice first with N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide copolymer-bound doxorubicin conjugate, and subsequently with IL-2/S4B6 mAb immunocomplexes alone or with IL-12 to induce an efficient antitumor immune response. Importantly, we show that the conjugate has significantly lower immunosuppressive activity than free doxorubicin when using dosage with comparable antitumor activity, thus eliminating the majority of tumor cells while leaving the immune system mostly unimpaired for stimulation with IL-2/S4B6 mAb immunocomplexes. Indeed, we demonstrate that the conjugate and IL-2/S4B6 mAb immunocomplexes together have synergistic antitumor activity.