Adenoviral transduction of tumor cells induces apoptosis in co-cultured T lymphocytes.

Adenoviral gene transfer of immunmodulatory molecules has been employed successfully in tumor vaccination studies to induce rejection of transplanted syngeneic tumors. In contrast, the response observed when treating chemically induced murine tumors is rather limited. The same applies for human malignancies. A number of reasons including poor transduction efficiency or insufficient T cell infiltration have been held accountable for this lack of efficacy. However, little attention has been given to effects of the adenoviral transduction itself on the T cell system. Here, we show that T cells are sensitized for activation-induced cell death after co-culture with adenovirally infected tumor cells. The levels of CD95/Fas ligand or TNF-alpha, both known mediators of activation induced cell death, however were not affected by the presence of adenovirus-infected target cells. Furthermore, supernatant transfer from adenovirally transduced or non-infected tumor cell cultures did not result in increased T cell apoptosis. This suggests that cell contact rather than a soluble factor is responsible for the induction of T cell apoptosis upon co-culture with adenovirally transduced tumor cells. Interestingly, and in line with our previous observations, activation-induced cell death was partially inhibited if T cells were co-cultured with tumor cells adenovirally transduced to express IL-7 and CD80, both molecules having the capacity to prevent T cell apoptosis.