Cancer therapy with major histocompatibility complex-deficient and interferon β-producing myeloid cells derived from allogeneic embryonic stem cells

Abstract

We previously established a method to generate myeloid cells with a proliferative capability from pluripotent stem cells and designated them iPS-ML. Human iPS-ML cells share features with physiological macrophages including the capability to infiltrate into cancer tissues. We observed therapeutic effects of human iPS-ML cells expressing interferon β (iPS-ML/interferon (IFN)-β) in xenograft cancer models. However, assessment of host immune system-mediated therapeutic and adverse effects of this therapy is impossible by xenograft models. We currently evaluated the therapeutic effects of a mouse equivalent of human iPS-ML/IFN, a mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived myeloid cell line producing IFN (ES-ML/IFN). The ES-MLs producing IFN-β (β-ML) and IFN-γ (γ-ML) and originating from E14 ES cells derived from the 129 mouse strain (H-2^b ) were generated, and the MHC (H-2K^b , D^b , and I-A^b ) genes of the ES-ML/IFN were disrupted using the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CAS9 method. We used the ES-ML/IFN to treat allogeneic BALB/c mice (H-2^d ) transplanted with Colon26 cancer cells. Treatment with β-ML but not with γ-ML cells repressed the growth of colon cancer in the peritoneal cavity and liver. The transferred ES-ML/IFN infiltrated into cancer tissues and enhanced infiltration of T cells into cancer tissues. ES-ML/IFN therapy increased the number of immune cells in the lymphoid organs. Sensitization of both cancer antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cells and natural killer (NK) cells were enhanced by the therapy, and CD8⁺ T cells were essential for the therapeutic effect, implying that donor MHC-deficient β-ML exhibited a therapeutic effect through the activation of host immune cells derived from allogeneic recipient mice. The results suggested the usefulness of HLA-deficient human iPS-ML/IFN-β cells for therapy of HLA-mismatched allogeneic cancer patients.

Keywords: MHC; embryonic stem cell; immunotherapy; interferon; macrophage.