Suppression of tumorigenicity and metastasis in murine UV-2237 fibrosarcoma cells by infection with a retroviral vector harboring the interferon-beta gene

 In this study, we endeavored to determine the effectiveness of interferon β (IFNβ) gene therapy against highly metastatic murine UV-2237m fibrosarcoma cells. UV-2237m cells were engineered to produce murine IFNβ constitutively following infection by a retroviral vector harboring the murine IFNβ gene. Parental (UV-2237m-P), control-vector-transduced (UV-2237m-Neo), and IFNβ-transduced (UV-2237m-IFNβ) cells were injected subcutaneously (s.c.) or intravenously (i.v.) into syngeneic mice. Parental and control-transduced cells produced rapidly growing tumors, whereas IFNβ-transduced cells did not. The tumorigenicity of IFNβ-sensitive or -resistant parental cells was significantly suppressed when they were injected s.c. together with IFNβ-transduced cells. The IFNβ-transduced cells did not inhibit growth of parental cells injected s.c. at a distant site. UV-2237m-IFNβ cells produced s.c. tumors in nude, SCID/Beige, and natural killer(NK)-cell-compromised syngeneic mice. The IFNβ-transduced cells were more sensitive to in vitro splenic cell-mediated lysis than were the parental or control-transduced cells. Pretreatment of C3H/HeN mice with the NK-cell-selective antiserum (anti-asialoGM1) partially abrogated the cytotoxic activity of the cells. Cytotoxic activity was not observed in mixed culture of UV-2237m-IFNβ cells and splenic cells from SCID/Beige mice. Significant cytotoxicity against UV-2237m-IFNβ cells was mediated by macrophages activated by either IFNγ, lipopolysaccharide, or a combination of both. Our data led us to conclude that the constitutive expression of IFNβ can suppress tumorigenicity and metastasis of UV-2237m cells, which is due, in part, to activation of host effector cells. Received: 12 November 1997 / Accepted: 30 January 1998