Colon cancer cell vaccine prepared with replication-deficient vaccinia viruses encoding B7.1 and interleukin-2 induce antitumor response in syngeneic mice

 A replication-deficient recombinant vaccinia virus, NYVAC, was developed by deleting 18 open reading frames in the vaccinia virus genome. Recombinant NYVAC, encoding the murine T cell co-stimulatory gene B7.1 (CD 80) (NYVAC-B7.1) and the murine interleukin-2 gene (NYVAC-IL-2), were prepared and the expression of B7.1 and the secretion of IL-2 were respectively confirmed in vitro. The use of these viruses to prepare a potent tumor cell vaccine was studied in a syngeneic murine CC-36 colon adenocarcinoma model. Mice were immunized on days 1 and 8 with 10⁶ irradiated CC-36 cells that were infected with 10⁷ plaque-forming units of either NYVAC-B7.1, NYVAC-IL-2 or a control virus, NYVAC-HR, which encodes a vaccinia virus host-range gene. These mice were then challenged with 10⁸ viable CC-36 tumor cells on day 15. All mice (10/10) in a group that had received no vaccination and all mice (20/20) in a group that had received a control vaccine of CC-36/NYVAC-HR developed tumor 4-weeks after tumor cell challenge. Interestingly, only 16/20 mice in a group that had received CC-36/NYVAC-B7.1 showed the development of tumor after the same interval. The protection against tumor development and the reduction in tumor burden (as mean tumor diameter, 4 weeks after tumor challenge) were significant in this group when compared to groups that were either unvaccinated or vaccinated with CC-36/NYVAC-HR (mean tumor diameter = 6.51±3.2 mm compared to 26.5±0.9 mm or 26.2±1.8 mm respectively) (P = < 0.05). The protection against tumor in a group of mice that received CC-36/NYVAC-IL-2 vaccination was similar to that in the unvaccinated group or the group receiving a CC-36/NYVAC-HR control vaccination. However, in a survival experiment, mice that received either CC36/NYVAC-B7.1 or CC-36/NYVAC-IL-2 vaccination on the day of tumor transplantation survived significantly longer than mice that had not been vaccinated (median survival 60+ days, 60+ days or 23.5 days respectively) (P = <0.05). Interestingly, when a therapeutic tumor vaccination was performed on day 4 after tumor transplantation, mice that had been vaccinated with either CC36/NYVAC-B7.1 or CC-36/NYVAC-IL-2 did not show an improved survival when compared to mice in the control that had not been vaccinated (median survival 28 days compared to 26 days or 25 days respectively). However, mice that had received a therapeutic vaccination with CC-36 cells infected with both NYVAC-B7.1 and NYVAC-IL-2, 4 days after tumor transplantation, survived significantly longer than control mice that had not received any vaccination (median survival 29.5 days compared to 25 days respectively) (P<0.05). These results suggest that a replication-deficient recombinant NYVAC encoding the B7.1 gene and NYVAC encoding the IL-2 gene can be used to produce an effective vaccinia-virus-augmented tumor cell vaccine. Received: 2 March 1998 / Accepted 23 March 1998