Potentiation of electrochemotherapy by intramuscular IL-12 gene electrotransfer in murine sarcoma and carcinoma with different immunogenicity

Background. Electrochemotherapy provides good local tumor control but requires adjuvant treatment for increased local response and action on distant metastasis. In relation to this, intramuscular interleukin-12 (IL-12) gene electrotransfer, which provides systemic shedding of IL-12, was combined with local electrochemotherapy with cisplatin. Furthermore, the dependence on tumor immunogenicity and immunocompetence of the host on combined treatment response was evaluated. Materials and methods. Sensitivity of SA-1 sarcoma and TS/A carcinoma cells to electrochemotherapy with cisplatin was tested in vitro. In vivo, intratumoral electrochemotherapy with cisplatin (day 1) was combined with a single (day 0) or multiple (days 0, 2, 4) intramuscular murine IL-12 (mIL-12) gene electrotransfer. The antitumor effectiveness of combined treatment was evaluated on immunogenic murine SA-1 sarcoma in A/J mice and moderately immunogenic murine TS/A carcinoma, in immunocompetent BALB/c and immunodeficient SCID mice. Results. Electrochemotherapy in vitro resulted in a similar IC50 values for both sarcoma and carcinoma cell lines. However, in vivo electrochemotherapy was more effective in the treatment of sarcoma, the more immunogenic of the tumors, resulting in a higher log cell kill, longer specific tumor growth delay, and also 17% tumor cures compared to carcinoma where no tumor cures were observed. Adjuvant intramuscular mIL-12 gene electrotransfer increased the log cell kill in both tumor models, potentiating the specific tumor growth delay by a factor of 1.8-2 and increasing tumor cure rate by approximately 20%. In sarcoma tumors, the potentiation of the response by intramuscular mIL-12 gene electrotransfer was dose-dependent and also resulted in a faster onset of tumor cures. Comparison of the carcinoma response to the combined treatment modality in immunocompetent and immunodeficient mice demonstrated that the immune system is needed both for increased cell kill and for attaining tumor cures. Conclusions. Based on the comparison of the antitumor effectiveness of electrochemotherapy to intratumoral cisplatin administration, we can conclude that the fraction of cells killed and the tumor cure rate are higher in immunogenic sarcoma tumor compared to moderately immunogenic carcinoma tumor. The tumor cell kill and cure rate depend on the immune response elicited by the destroyed tumor cells, which might depend on the tumor immunogenicity. The effect of adjuvant intramuscular mIL-12 gene electrotransfer is dependent on the amount of IL-12 in the system and the immune competence of the host, as demonstrated by the dose-dependent increase in the cure rate of SA-1 tumors after multiple intramuscular mIL-12 gene electrotransfer and in the differential cure rate of TS/A tumors growing in immunocompetent and immunodeficient mice.