TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand mediates tumoricidal activity of human monocytes stimulated by Newcastle disease virus.

The Newcastle disease virus (NDV) has antineoplastic and immunostimulatory properties, and it is currently clinically tested in anticancer therapy. However, the tumoricidal mechanisms of NDV tumor therapy are not fully understood. The results presented here demonstrate that NDV-stimulated human monocytes (Mphi) kill various human tumor cell lines and that this tumoricidal activity is mediated by TRAIL. In contrast to soluble TRAIL-R2-Fc, soluble CD95-Fc and TNF-R2-Fc showed only minimal blocking of the antitumor effect. TRAIL expression is induced on human Mphi after stimulation with NDV and UV-inactivated NDV. These results show that TRAIL induction on human Mphi after NDV stimulation is independent from viral replication and that TRAIL mediates the tumoricidal activity of NDV-stimulated human Mphi.