Dendritic cells pulsed with an anti-idiotype antibody mimicking carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) can reverse immunological tolerance to CEA and induce antitumor immunity in CEA transgenic mice.

In this report, we have studied the immunogenicity of the nominal antigen, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and that of an anti-idiotype antibody, 3H1, which mimics CEA and can be used as a surrogate for CEA. We have demonstrated that immunization of CEA transgenic mice with bone marrow-derived mature dendritic cells (DC) loaded with anti-idiotype 3H1 or CEA could reverse CEA unresponsiveness and result in the induction of CEA-specific immune responses and the rejection of CEA-transfected MC-38 colon carcinoma cells, C15. Immunized mice splenocytes proliferated in an antigen-specific manner by a mechanism dependent on the functions of CD4, MHC II, B7-2, CD40, CD28, and CD25. However, immune splenic lymphocytes isolated from 3H1-DC-vaccinated mice when stimulated in vitro with 3H1 or CEA secreted significantly higher levels of Th1 cytokines than did CEA-DC vaccinated mice. DC vaccination also induced antigen-specific effector CD8+ T cells capable of expressing interleukin-2, IFN-gamma, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and displayed cytotoxic activity against C15 cells in an MHC class I-restricted manner. 3H1-DC vaccination resulted in augmented CTL responses and the elevated expression of CD69, CD25, and CD28 on CD8(+) CTLs. The immune responses developed in 3H1-DC-immunized mice resulted in rejection of C15 tumor cells in nearly 100% of experimental mice, whereas only 40% of experimental mice immunized with CEA-DC were protected from C15 tumor growth. These findings suggest that under the experimental conditions used, 3H1-DC vaccination was better than CEA-DC vaccination in breaking immune tolerance to CEA and inducing protective antitumor immune responses in this murine model transgenic for human CEA.