Immunotherapy and gene therapy

The Immunotherapy and Gene Therapy meeting of the Academy of Medical Sciences reviewed the state-of-the-art and translational prospects for therapeutic interventions aimed at killing tumor cells, correcting genetic defects and developing vaccines for chronic infections. Crucial basic science concepts and information about dendritic cells, the structure and function of T-cell receptors, and manipulation of the immune response by cytokine antagonists and peptides were presented. This information underpins vaccine design and delivery, as well as attempts to immunomodulate autoimmune disease. Results from studies using anticancer DNA vaccines, which include appropriate signals for both the innate and adaptive immune response, were presented in several talks. The vaccines incorporated helper epitopes and cancer target epitopes such as immunoglobulin idiotypes (for lymphomas and myelomas), melanoma-associated antigens (for melanoma and other solid tumors) and minor histocompatibility antigens (for leukemia). The results of using vaccines employing similar principles and designed to reduce viral load in HIV/AIDS patients were also presented. The introduction of suicide genes incorporating the bacterial enzyme nitroreductase gene (ntr) targeted at tumor cells prior to administration of the prodrug CB-1954, converted by ntr into a toxic alkylating agent, was discussed against the background of clinical trials and improved suicide gene design. The introduction into hematopoietic stem cells of missing genes for the common gamma-chain, deficiency of which causes severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), used similar retroviral transduction. The outcome of treating six SCID patients in the UK, and ten in France was successful immune reconstitution in the majority of patients, but in two of the French cases a complication of lymphoproliferative disease due to insertional mutagenesis was observed. The adoptive transfer of T-cells specific for minor histocompatibility antigens (for leukemia), cytomegalovirus (CMV; for CMV infection following stem cell transplantation) and selected Epstein-Barr virus-encoded antigens (for nasopharyngeal carcinoma) were discussed in relation to the source of specifically primed T-cells or the possibility of transducing recipient T-cells with high-affinity, antigen-specific T-cell receptor genes.