Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) has one of the worst clinical outcomes among the B-cell lymphomas, with a median survival of only 3 to 4 years. Therefore, a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms that regulate MCL proliferation/survival is needed to develop an effective therapy. Because sonic hedgehog (Shh)-GLI signaling has been shown to be important in the proliferation and survival of several cancers, and no such information is available for MCL, this study was undertaken. Our results show that the molecules associated with Shh-GLI signaling, such as PTCH and SMO receptors, and GLI1 and GLI2 target transcription factors were expressed in the human MCL cell lines and primary MCL cells from patients. Perturbation of this signaling in the presence of exogenous Shh/cyclopamine significantly (P < 0.001) influenced the proliferation of JVM2 MCL cells. Furthermore, down-regulation of GLI transcription factors using antisense oligonucleotides not only resulted in significantly (P < 0.001) decreased proliferation of the MCL cells but also significantly (P < 0.05) increased their susceptibility to chemotherapeutic drug, doxorubicin. Also, downregulation of GLI decreased cyclin D1 and BCL2 transcript levels, which suggests that these key molecules might be regulated by GLI in MCL. Thus, our results indicate a significant role for Shh-GLI signaling in the proliferation of MCL, and molecular targeting of GLI is a potential therapeutic approach to improve the treatment for MCL.

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Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is one of the most aggressive B-cell lymphomas with a median patient survival of only 5-7 years. The failure of existing therapies is mainly due to disease relapse when therapy-resistant tumor cells remain after chemotherapy. Therefore, development and testing of novel therapeutic strategies to target these therapy-resistant MCL are needed. Here, we developed an in vivo model of therapy-resistant MCL by transplanting a patient-derived MCL cell line (Granta 519) into NOD/SCID mice followed by treatment with combination chemotherapy. Cytomorphologic, immunophenotypic, in vitro and in vivo growth analyses of these therapy-resistant MCL cells confirm their MCL origin and resistance to chemotherapy. Moreover, quantitative real-time PCR revealed the upregulation of GLI transcription factors, which are mediators of the hedgehog signaling pathway, in these therapy-resistant MCL cells. Therefore, we developed an effective therapeutic strategy for resistant MCL by treating the NOD/SCID mice bearing Granta 519 MCL with CHOP chemotherapy to reduce tumor burden combined with GLI-antisense oligonucleotides or bortezomib, a proteosome inhibitor, to target therapyresistant MCL cells that remained after chemotherapy. This regimen was followed by treatment with MCL-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes to eliminate all detectable leftover minimal residual disease. Mice treated with this strategy showed a significantly increased survival and decreased tumor burden compared to the mice in all other groups. Such therapeutic strategies that combine chemotherapy with targeted therapy followed by tumor-specific immunotherapy are effective and have excellent potential for clinical application to provide long-term, disease-free survival in MCL patients.Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is one of the most aggressive lymphomas among the B-cell malignancies, with a median survival of only 5-7 years.1 MCL is characterized genetically by the t(11;14)(q13;q32) translocation, which leads to overex pression of cyclin D1.2 Although existing therapies using different combinations of chemotherapeutic agents such as cyclo phosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, prednisone (CHOP), cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, dexamethasone (hyper-CVAD), Rituximab and Bortezomib (BTZ) increase disease-free survival, relapse due to residual therapy-resistant MCL is the main roadblock to cure of this disease.3,4 Therefore, an effective treatment strategy is needed to target the biological basis of therapy resistance. Current evidence suggests that single or multiple agents are often inadequate for the treatment of aggressive lymphomas like MCL.3-7 Therefore, effort should be put into developing new approaches such as strategies that sequentially administer targeted agents. 5,8 We have developed an innovative therapeutic strategy that combines CHOP chemotherapy (to reduce the tumor burden) and inhibition of hedgehog signaling or tumor microenvironment (to target therapy-resistant MCL) followed by treatment using transplantation of MCL-specifi...

The Her2/neu oncogene encodes a transmembrane protein with homology to the epidermal growth factor receptor. Overexpression of this gene contributes to the aggressiveness of breast cancer and poor prognosis. Therefore, Her2/neu is an ideal target molecule for generating effective cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) against breast cancers. This study reports on the generation of Her2/neu-specific CTL from umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells (UCBC) using dendritic cells primed with Her2/neu-derived peptide (KIFGSLAFL, E75) for immunostimulation. The CTLs showed specific cytotoxicity to Her2/neu high expressing MDA-453 but not toward Her2/neu low expressing MDA-231 human breast cancer cells. Similarly generated CTLs stimulated with irrelevant peptide pulsed dendritic cells did not show significant cytotoxicity towards breast cancer targets. The phenotypes of cells in culture showed high percentage of CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+T cells as determined by flow cytometry. However, the antibody mediated blocking assay demonstrated that only HLA-Class I restricted CD8+ cells are involved in the cytotoxicity. Furthermore, in vivo studies showed that treatment of SCID mice bearing MDA-453 tumor with Her2/neu-specific CTLs resulted in significant inhibition of tumor growth compared to untreated tumor bearing control mice. These results demonstrate that human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells are a good source for generating Her2/neu-specific CTLs against human breast cancer both in vitro and in vivo.