You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Poster Presentation
P24. Aviscumine enhances NK- cytotoxicity against tumor cells
  1. G Gamerith1,
  2. A Amann1,
  3. B Schenk2,
  4. T Auer3,
  5. JM Huber1,
  6. K Cima4,
  7. H Lentzen5,
  8. J Löffler-Ragg4,
  9. H Zwierzina1 and
  10. W Hilbe1
  1. Aff1 grid.5361.10000000088532677Clinic of Internal Medicine VInnsbruck Medical University Innsbruck Austria
  2. Aff2 grid.5361.10000000088532677Department of General and Surgical Intensive CareInnsbruck Medical University Innsbruck Austria
  3. Aff3 grid.5361.10000000088532677Department of RadiologyInnsbruck Medical University Innsbruck Austria
  4. Aff4 grid.5361.10000000088532677Clinic For Internal Medicine ViInnsbruck Medical University Innsbruck Austria
  5. Aff5 Cytavis Biopharma Gmbh Innsbruck Austria

http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2051-1426-2-S2-P15

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Meeting abstracts

    Background

    The mistletoe lectin I belongs to a new class of anticancer drugs with type II ribosomal inhibitor activity. The recombinant mistletoe lectin (aviscumine) has shown immunomodulatory and cytotoxic activity in preclinical models as well as potential antitumor effects in phase I and I/II clinical trials. The aim of this study was to further elucidate the immunostimulatory capacity of aviscumine on natural killer (NK) cell function in a human ex-vivo model.

    Methods

    The effect of aviscumine (0.5 and 1 ng/ml) on the cellular cytotoxicity of NK cells isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 34 healthy volunteers was measured via a standard Chromium51 release assay against K562 chronic myelogenous leukemia cells. For further validation changes in expression of the NK cell activation marker CD107α was determined via flow cytometry (FACS) in 13 volunteers.

    Results

    Aviscumine induced a significant concentration-dependent increase in NK cellular cytotoxicity in about 54% of the volunteers (p<0.001). This enhancement was also observed with low dose IL-2 stimulation (p=0.01). FACS analysis revealed an aviscumine triggered up-regulation of the NK cell degranulation marker CD107a (p=0.001).

    Conclusion

    Functional ex-vivo analysis of NK cells from healthy donors revealed a direct immune stimulatory mechanism of aviscumine. These data further strengthen its potential as immunomodulatory antitumor agent and suggest that NK cell activity in peripherial blood may be evaluated as predictive biomarker in clinical trials.