TAT 2020: IL-18 and Anticancer Immunity in Prostate Cancer
Posted: Wednesday, March 25, 2020
An e-poster from the proceedings of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Targeted Anticancer Therapies (TAT) Congress 2020 (Abstract 12P) revealed that interleukin-18 (IL-18) may improve the anticancer immunity of gamma delta (Vγ2Vδ2) T cells in prostate cancer. The study’s basis relies on using IL-18 conjointly with other cytokines to optimize T cells for anticancer immunity function.
According to Mohanad H. Nada, MD PhD, of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and colleagues,“Our findings conclude that using IL-18 in combination with IL-2 or IL-15 results in increasing the yield, balancing out the memory subsets, and promoting the anticancer immunity of human Vγ2Vδ2 T cells.”
The authors used peripheral blood mononuclear cells for ex vivo expansion of Vγ2Vδ2 T cells. The cells were pulsed with zoledronate in the presence of the cytokines IL-2, IL-5, and/or, IL-18. Next, the researchers used multicolor flowcCytometry to observe cell functionality via cytokine expression. T cells and human prostate cancer cells (PC-3) were then cultured together to assess the cytotoxicity of activated Vγ2Vδ2 T cells, which was measured by CD107a expression.
The study demonstrated that treating Vγ2Vδ2 T cells with cytokines increased the overall number of activated T cells. The memory of T cells was variably based on the combinations of cytokines. IL-18 displayed increased memory at early and central subsets when in combination with IL-2 but increased late memory with IL-15. Lastly, the researchers observed increased CD107a expression on activated Vγ2Vδ2 T cells when cultured with PC-3 cells, indicating increased antitumor activity.
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
