Effect of B7.1 Costimulation on T-Cell Based Immunity against TAP-Negative Cancer Can Be Facilitated by TAP1 Expression

Tumors deficient in expression of the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) usually fail to induce T-cell-mediated immunity and are resistant to T-cell lysis. However, we have found that introduction of the B7.1 gene into TAP-negative (TAP(-)) or TAP1-transfected (TAP1(+)) murine lung carcinoma CMT.64 cells can augment the capacity of the cells to induce a protective immune response against wild-type tumor cells. Differences in the strength of the protective immune responses were observed between TAP(-) and TAP1(+) B7.1 expressing CMT.64 cells depending on the doses of gamma-irradiated cell immunization. While mice immunized with either high or low dose of B7.1-expressing TAP1(+) cells rejected TAP(-) tumors, only high dose immunization with B7.1-expressing TAP(-) cells resulted in tumor rejection. The induced protective immunity was T-cell dependent as demonstrated by dramatically reduced antitumor immunity in mice depleted of CD8 or CD4 cells. Augmentation of T-cell mediated immune response against TAP(-) tumor cells was also observed in a virally infected tumor cell system. When mice were immunized with a high dose of gamma-irradiated CMT.64 cells infected with vaccinia viruses carrying B7.1 and/or TAP1 genes, we found that the cells co-expressing B7.1 and TAP1, but not those expressing B7.1 alone, induced protective immunity against CMT.64 cells. In addition, inoculation with live tumor cells transfected with several different gene(s) revealed that only B7.1- and TAP1-coexpressing tumor cells significantly decreased tumorigenicity. These results indicate that B7.1-provoked antitumor immunity against TAP(-) cancer is facilitated by TAP1-expression, and thus both genes should be considered for cancer therapy in the future.