Therapeutic effect of idiotype-specific CD4+ T cells against B-cell lymphoma in the absence of anti-idiotypic antibodies.

Immunoglobulin (Ig) variable (V) region idiotypes (Id's) are highly tumor-specific antigens produced by B-lymphoma cells and are promising targets for immunotherapy. Id vaccination has proven effective in experimental mouse models and may possibly prevent recurrence of B lymphomas in humans. It has previously been shown that anti-Id antibodies protect against B-cell lymphoma in the absence of T cells. We here demonstrate in a T-cell-receptor transgenic mouse model that the contrary is also true: Id-specific CD4+ T cells can protect against Id+ B-lymphoma cells in the absence of B cells, antibodies, and CD8+ T cells. Moreover, Id-specific CD4+ T cells have a curative potential since they could be transferred as late as 17 days after subcutaneous tumor cell injection of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice and still abrogate tumor development in about 50% of mice. Such mice undergo an acute inflammatory swelling with infiltration of neutrophils at the site of tumor injection, which subsides over weeks, with some mice cured and delayed emergence of lymphomas in other mice. Adoptively transferred CD4+ T cells accumulated in the tumor and were activated (CD69+). In vitro experiments demonstrated that memory, but not naive, Id-specific CD4+ T cells kill Id+ B-lymphoma cells. The results show that Id-specific CD4+ T cells, in the absence of antibodies home to subcutaneous Id+ B lymphoma, become activated, induce inflammation, and prevent tumor development.