Increase of proliferation rate and enhancement of antitumor cytotoxicity of expanded human CD3+ CD56+ immunologic effector cells by receptor-mediated transfection with the interleukin-7 gene.

Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells have been shown to eradicate established tumors in a SCID mouse-human lymphoma model. CIK cells depend on exogenous addition of cytokines such as interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-7 (IL-7) or interleukin-12 (IL-12) for proliferation. In this study, we used the adenovirus-enhanced CD3 receptor-mediated gene transfer for transfection with the IL-7 gene. An episomally replicating plasmid was used containing cDNA of the human IL-7 gene under the control of a CMV promoter for transfection of CIK cells. Biosynthesis of IL-7 was demonstrated by RT-PCR, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and using a bioassay. Transfected cells produced IL-7 in the range between 200 and 1100 pg/10(6) cells in 24 h. IL-7 was shown to be biologically active, since transfected CIK cells showed an improved proliferation rate as compared with nontransfected cells. Expression of IL-7 altered the secretion of other cytokines by CIK cells, in particular the production of TNF alpha increased after transfection. In contrast, nontransfected CIK cells fed with IL-7 showed no increase in TNF alpha secretion. No significant differences were found in expression of surface antigens linked to the cytotoxic activity of CIK cells. Cytotoxic activity against various tumor cell lines (eg renal cell carcinoma, malignant melanoma and colon carcinoma) was tested. Transfected cells possessed a significantly higher cytotoxic activity as compared with nontransfected cells. Receptor-mediated gene transfer effectively delivers expression plasmids for therapeutic genes into CIK cells and CIK cells transfected with an IL-7 gene expression construct may be valuable for adoptive immunotherapy.