Listeria monocytogenes is an intracellular organism that has the unusual ability to live in the cytoplasm of the cell. It is thus a good vector for targeting protein antigens to the cellular arm of the immune response. Here we use a model system, consisting of colon and renal carcinomas that express the influenza virus nucleoprotein and a recombinant L. monocytogenes that secrets this antigen, to test the potential of this organism as a cancer immunotherapeutic agent. We show that this recombinant organism can not only protect mice against lethal challenge with tumour cells that express the antigen, but can also cause regression of established macroscopic tumours in an antigen-specific T-cell-dependent manner.

We have shown that Listeria-based cancer vaccines inhibit the growth of transplanted tumors in a transgenic mouse model of immune tolerance where HPV-16 E7 is expressed in the thyroid gland. In this study we determine whether these vaccines are able to inhibit autochthonous tumor growth in this animal model. Mice treated with Listeria vaccines expressing E7 had significantly smaller thyroid tumors than did mice treated with controls and possessed higher numbers of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells within the spleens, tumors, and peripheral blood. This study shows that Listeria-based vaccines are able to slow autochthonous tumor growth and break immunological tolerance.

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a disease that responds to current treatment regimens; however, patients in general relapse with increasingly refractory disease. Idiotype-based vaccines are currently under trial for the treatment of FL. These vaccines comprise the patient's BCR idiotype (Id) as the tumor antigen conjugated to the protein carrier Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH); however, other protein carriers may enhance the immune response to the lymphoma Id. In this study we investigated whether an alternate carrier, Listeriolysin O (LLO), would amplify the immune response to Id protein and provide better protection against challenge by 38C13 murine lymphoma. The Id-LLO vaccine compared favorably against Id-KLH in tumor-protection studies and both vaccines provided systemic immunity against 38C13 lymphoma. However, the immune response to the two conjugates was different in that Id-LLO induced a more powerful Th1 response characterized by high titer IgG2a anti-Id antibodies after one immunization and the presence of CD4 cells secreting IFN-gamma. In vivo studies demonstrated that immune serum contributed to the anti-lymphoma efficacy seen following Id-LLO immunization. Interestingly, Id-LLO immunized mice, when challenged twice with 38C13 lymphoma provided better protection against challenge by the BCR loss variant 38C13-V2, suggesting that Id-LLO immunized mice have more potential to develop epitope spreading than Id-KLH. In conclusion, Id-LLO compared favorably against Id-KLH in its anti-lymphoma efficacy. Furthermore, Id-LLO induced a more potent humoral and cell-mediated immune response and promoted epitope spreading after lymphoma challenge. Thus, anti-Id vaccines incorporating LLO may be a better therapeutic option for treatment of B-cell lymphoma.