In vivo potential of recombinant granulysin against human tumors

9 kDa granulysin is a protein present in the granules of human CTL and NK cells, with cytolytic activity against microbes and tumors. Previous work from our group demonstrated that this granulysin isoform induced apoptosis in vitro on hematological tumor cells and on primary tumor cells from B-CLL patients. In the present work, recombinant 9 kDa granulysin was used as an anti-tumoral agent to study its in vivo effect on tumor development in athymic "nude" mice models bearing human breast adenocarcinoma MDA-MB-231 or multiple myeloma NCI-H929-derived xenografts. Granulysin prevented the in vivo development of detectable MDA-MB-231-derived tumors. In addition, recombinant granulysin was able to completely eradicate NCI-H929-derived tumors. All granulysin-treated tumors exhibited signs of apoptosis induction and an increased NK cell infiltration inside the tumor tissue comparing to control ones. Moreover, no in vivo deleterious effects of the recombinant 9 kDa granulysin doses used in this study were observed on the skin or on the internal organs of the animals. In conclusion, granulysin was able to inhibit the progression of MDA-MB-231-derived xenografts and also to eradicate multiple myeloma NCI-H929-derived xenografts. This work opens the door to the initiation of preclinical and possibly clinical studies for the use of 9 kDa granulysin as a new anti-tumoral treatment.