γδ T cell activation by bispecific antibodies

Bispecific antibodies have been successfully introduced into clinical application. γδ T cells are of special interest for tumor immunotherapy, due to their recognition of pyrophosphates that are overproduced by many tumor cells resulting in HLA-nonrestricted tumor cell killing. Here we describe in detail a [(Her2)2 × Vγ9] tribody construct that targets human Vγ9 T cells to HER2-expressing tumor cells. The direct comparison with other selective Vγ9 T cell agonists including phosphoantigens and nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates revealed the superiority of the [(Her2)2 × Vγ9] tribody in triggering γδ T cell-mediated tumor cell killing with negligible induction of γδ T cell death. In contrast, phosphoantigens and bisphosphonates are potent inducers of γδ T cell proliferation but less efficient enhancers of γδ T cell-mediated tumor cell killing. Collectively, our data identify unique properties of a γδ T cell-targeting [(Her2)2 × Vγ9] tribody which make it an attractive candidate for clinical application in γδ T cell-based tumor immunotherapy.