[摘要]：Anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that block the interaction of CTLA-4 with CD80 and CD86 such as tremelimumab and ipilimumab are currently being tested in the clinic for cancer treatment exploiting their properties to de-repress tumor-specific cellular immunity. Addition of the fully human anti-CTLA-4 (tremelimumab) to cultures of human T cells with allogenic dendritic cells (DCs) did not increase proliferation. Magnetic bead-mediated elimination of CD4(+) CD25(+) regulatory T cells (T-reg) before setting up those alloreactive cultures also largely failed to increase primary proliferation. In contrast, predepletion of CD4(+) CD25(+) T-reg and culture in the presence of tremelimumab synergistically resulted in increased proliferation and DC: T-cell aggregation. These effects were much more prominent in CD4 than in CD8 T cells. The synergy mechanism can be traced to enhanced CTLA-4 expression in effector cells as a result of T-reg elimination, thereby offering more targets to the blocking antibody. Human T cells and allogenic DCs (derived both from healthy donors and advanced cancer patients) were coinjected in the peritoneum of Rag2(-/-) IL-2R gamma(-/-) mice. In these conditions, tremelimumab injected intravenously did not significantly enhance alloreactive proliferation unless T-reg cells had been predepleted. Synergistic effects in vivo were again largely restricted to the CD4 T-cell compartment. In addition, T-reg depletion and CTLA-4 blockade synergistically enhanced specific cytotoxicity raised in culture against autologous EBV-transformed cell lines. Taken together, these experiments indicate that tremelimumab therapy may benefit from previous or concomitant T-reg depletion.
