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Tumor cells expressing a retroviral envelope escape immune rejection in vivo

M Mangeney1, T Heidmann

  • 1Unité des Rétrovirus Endogènes et Eléments Rétroïdes des Eukaryotes Supérieurs, Unité Mixte de Recherche 1573, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Gustave Roussy, 39 rue Camille Desmoulins, 94805 Villejuif, France.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|December 9, 1998
PubMed

A model system for the in vivo control of tumor cell proliferation by the immune system has been used to assay for the possible immunosuppressive activity of retroviral proteins. Expression vectors for the entire or the transmembrane subunit of the Moloney murine leukemia virus envelope protein were constructed, as well as control vectors for irrelevant transmembrane proteins-or no protein. They were introduced either into MCA205 murine tumor cells, which do not proliferate upon s.c. injection into an allogeneic host, or into CL8.1 murine tumor cells, which overexpress class I antigens and are rejected in a syngeneic host. In both cases, expression of the complete envelope protein or of the transmembrane subunit resulted in tumor growth in vivo, with no effect of control vectors. Tumor cell growth results from inhibition of the host immune response, as the envelope-dependent effect was no more observed for MCA205 cells in syngeneic mice or for CL8.1 cells in x-irradiated mice. This inhibition is local because it is not observed at the level of control tumor cells injected contralaterally. These results suggest a noncanonical function of retroviral envelopes in the "penetrance" of viral infections, as well as a possible involvement of the envelope proteins of endogenous retroviruses in tumoral processes.

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