Chimeric Form of Tumor Necrosis Factor-A Has Enhanced Surface
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Cancer Gene Therapy (2009) 16, 53–64 r 2009 Nature Publishing Group All rights reserved 0929-1903/09 $32.00 www.nature.com/cgt ORIGINAL ARTICLE Chimeric form of tumor necrosis factor-a has enhanced surface expression and antitumor activity R Rieger1, D Whitacre1, MJ Cantwell1,3, C Prussak2 and TJ Kipps1 1Department of Medicine, Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA and 2Memgen, LLC, Solana Beach, CA, USA Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a is a type-II transmembrane protein that is cleaved by TNF-a-converting enzyme (TACE/ADAM-17) to release soluble TNF, a cytokine with potent antitumor properties whose use in clinical applications is limited by its severe systemic toxicity. We found that human cells transfected with vectors encoding TNF without the TACE cleavage site (DTACE-TNF) still released functional cytokine at substantial levels that varied between transfected cell lines of different tissue types. Vectors encoding membrane-associated domains of CD154, another TNF-family protein, conjoined with the carboxyl-terminal domain of TNF, directed higher-level surface expression of a functional TNF that, in contrast to DTACE-TNF, was resistant to cleavage in all cell types. Furthermore, adenovirus vectors encoding CD154-TNF had significantly greater in vivo biological activity in inducing regression of established, syngeneic tumors in mice than adenovirus vectors encoding TNF, and lacked toxicity associated with soluble TNF. As such, CD154-TNF is a novel TNF that appears superior for treatment of tumors in which high-level local expression of TNF is desired. Cancer Gene Therapy (2009) 16, 53–64; doi:10.1038/cgt.2008.57; published online 25 July 2008 Keywords: tumor; necrosis; factor; immunotherapy; adenovirus; CD154 9–11 Introduction from that of secreted TNF in vitro and in vivo. However, cells expressing such truncated forms of TNF Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a was initially described lacking the TACE cleavage site still could release 9 as a 17-kDa soluble cytokine that could induce local active TNF. Moreover, enzymes other than TACE could and systemic tumor regression.1 However, clinical trials cleave the 26-kDa TNF proform at sites other than that 12 revealed that the soluble cytokine had a low therapeutic recognized by TACE, to release a soluble TNF. As such, index, owing to its toxicity when present at therapeutic the interpretation that membrane TNF has biological concentrations in the systemic circulation.2–4 activity distinct from that of soluble TNF has to be Soluble TNF is released from the surface of tempered in light of the fact that soluble TNF still might cells expressing the 26-kDa proform of TNF through be released in the microenvironment of cells expressing the TNF-a-converting enzyme (TACE/ADAM-17),5,6 a such modified forms of TNF. matrix metalloproteinase that recognizes a cleavage site To address the hypothesis that membrane-bound TNF in the extracellular domain of the full-length TNF elicits a biological response distinct from that of the molecule.7 Deletion of this cleavage site results in soluble molecule, we generated chimeric forms of TNF the generation of a TNF molecule that has enhanced that are highly resistant to release from the cellular membrane stability.7–9 Mice made transgenic for this membrane. This was accomplished by fusing the active membrane-stabilized form of TNF produced significantly ligand-binding portion of the TNF molecule with the higher levels of interleukin-12 than wild-type mice or transmembrane and proximal extracellular domains of TNF-deficient mice after administration of lipopoly- TNF family proteins that primarily are expressed as cell- saccharide, suggesting that the transmembrane form of surface molecules (for example, CD154 or CD70). We TNF might affect cellular immune responses in vivo and generated adenovirus vectors encoding wild-type TNF have quantitatively and qualitatively distinct functions (Ad-wtTNF), TNF lacking the defined TACE site (Ad- DTACE-TNF) and chimeric forms of TNF with CD154 (Ad-CD154-TNF) or CD70 (Ad-CD70-TNF), and ex- Correspondence: Dr TJ Kipps, Moores UCSD Cancer Center, amined cells infected with such constructs for expression University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 3855 Health Sciences Drive no. 0820, La Jolla, CA 92093-0820, USA. of functional cell-surface TNF relative to that of the E-mail: [email protected] soluble cytokine. Furthermore, we compared the ability 3Current address: Adventrx Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, CA, USA of CD154-TNF versus wtTNF to induce an antitumor Received 20 January 2008; revised 22 May 2008; accepted 3 June response against syngeneic fibrosarcoma and lymphoma 2008; published online 25 July 2008 in vivo. Antitumor activity of membrane-anchored TNF R Rieger et al 54 Materials and methods ATTCACAGGGCGATGATTCCAAAG. The putative Cell lines and mice matrix metalloproteinase cleavage site of CD154 was then HeLa (human cervical carcinoma), HT1080 (human deleted from this construct using Stratagene’s Quick- fibrosarcoma), A549 (human lung), HCT-15 and COLO- Change site-directed mutagenesis kit according to the 205 (human colon), DU-145 (human prostate), RPMI- manufacturer’s instructions with the following primers: 50-CAAAGAAGAGAAAAAAGAAGATGAGGATCCT 8226 (human myeloma), HT1376 (human bladder), L929 0 (mouse fibroblast), WEHI-164 (mouse fibrosarcoma) and GTAGCCC and 5 -GGGCTACAGGATCCTCATCTTC A20 (mouse B cell lymphoma) were obtained from ATCC, TTTTTTCTCTTCTTTG. Manassas, VA. The cell line 293AC2, a subclone of 293, The DTACE-TNF constructs were created by deletion was obtained from Molecular Medicine Inc. (San Diego, of the nucleotides corresponding to the first 12 amino CA). All cell lines except for 293AC2 were cultured in acids of the mature TNF, that is, amino acids 77–88 of RPMI-1640 containing 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) and the full-length human and 80–91 of the mouse protein. Using the QuickChange site-directed mutagenesis kit 2mML-glutamine and maintained in a 5% CO incubator. 2 (Stratagene, San Diego, CA), we deleted the nucleotide 293AC2 cells were cultured in DMEM containing 10% 0 ML sequence 5 -GTCAGATCATCTTCTCGAACCCCGAG FCS and 2 m -glutamine and maintained in a 10% CO2 0 incubator. TGACAAGCCT or 5 -CTCAGATCATCTTCTCAAAA Female BALB/c and FVB/N mice, 6–8 weeks of TTCGAGTGACAAGCCT, from the human or mouse age, were purchased from Charles River Laboratories TNF coding sequences, respectively. All clones were (Wilmington, MA) and housed at the University of validated by nucleic acid sequence analysis. The proteins California, San Diego (UCSD) animal facility. All animal encoded by each contruct was tested for its ability to bind studies were approved by the Animal Subjects Committee specific anti-TNF monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), as and the Biosafety Committee of the UCSD School of assessed by flow cytometry. Medicine and were performed in accordance with institu- tional guidelines. Adenovirus synthesis pcDNA3 plasmids containing the transgene of interest Chimeric gene construction were digested with the restriction enzymes NruI and SmaI We generated chimeric genes using cDNA encoding either to release a DNA fragment containing the CMV the mouse or human protein. Experiments conducted with promoter from pcDNA3, the transgene and the poly- human cells used constructs encoding the human protein adenylation signal from pcDNA3. Following gel puri- and studies performed with mouse tumor-cell lines or fication of this fragment by electrophoretic separation in a in vivo used constructs encoding the murine protein. 1% agarose gel, the DNA fragment was ligated into the The human CD154-TNF chimera was designed as EcoRV site of the adenoviral shuttle vector MCS (SK) follows. DNA encoding a fragment of human CD154 pXCX2. This plasmid is a modification of the plasmid spanning the intracellular, transmembrane and partial pXCX2 such that the pBluescript polylinker sequence has extracellular region adjacent to the transmembrane region been cloned into the E1 region (JR Tozer, UCSD, of CD154 was amplified from the full-length CD154 unpublished data, September 1993). A quantity of 5 mg cDNA by PCR using the following primers (50-GACAA each of the transgene containing MCS (SK) pXCX2 GCTTATGATCGAAACATACAACC and 50-TCAGG plasmid and JM17 plasmid were then cotransfected into ATCCTCATCTTTCTTCG). EcoRI and BamHI restric- 293AC2 cells using the calcium phosphate Profection Kit tion enzyme sites were added at the 50 and 30 ends of this from Promega according to the manufacturer’s instruc- fragment. DNA encoding the extracellular region of tions. Following transfection, the cells were cultured for human TNF distal to the TACE cleavage site was also 5 days to allow for homologous recombination and viral PCR-amplified from the full-length TNF cDNA using the synthesis. Total cells and supernatant were then harvested following primers: 50-CCGGATCCTGTAGCCCATGTT and freeze–thawed thrice to release cell-associated adeno- GTAGCAAACC and 50-GTTTCTAGATTCACAGAG virus. Clonal isolates of the adenovirus were then CAATGATTCCAAAG. XbaI and BamHI restriction obtained by plaque purification as previously described. enzyme sites were added to the ends of this fragment. Large-scale adenovirus preparations were prepared by The CD154 and TNF DNA fragments were digested with successively infecting increasing quantities of 293AC2. the restriction enzymes described above followed by The large-scale crude adenovirus preparations were then coligation into the EcoRI and XbaI sites of pcDNA3 purified over cesium chloride