Improved safety of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived antigen-presenting cell-based cancer immunotherapy

The tumorigenicity and toxicity of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and their derivatives are major safety concerns in their clinical application. Recently, we developed granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)-producing proliferating myeloid cells (GM-pMCs) from mouse iPSCs as a source of unlimited antigen-presenting cells for use in cancer immunotherapy. As GM-pMCs are generated by introducing c-Myc and Csf2 into iPSC-derived MCs and are dependent on self-produced GM-CSF for proliferation, methods to control their proliferation after administration should be introduced to improve safety. In this study, we compared the efficacy of two promising suicide gene systems, herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase (HSV-TK)/ganciclovir (GCV) and inducible caspase-9 (iCasp9)/AP1903, for safeguarding GM-pMCs in cancer immunotherapy. The expression of HSV-TK or iCasp9 did not impair the fundamental properties of GM-pMCs. Both of these suicide gene-expressing cells selectively underwent apoptosis after treatment with the corresponding apoptosis-inducing drug, and they were promptly eliminated in vivo. iCasp9/AP1903 induced apoptosis more efficiently than HSV-TK/GCV. Furthermore, high concentrations of GCV were toxic to cells not expressing HSV-TK, whereas AP1903 was bioinert. These results suggest that iCasp9/AP1903 is superior to HSV-TK/GCV in terms of both safety and efficacy when controlling the fate of GM-pMCs after priming antitumor immunity.