Targeting Multiple Myeloma with Human Ig Light Chain Specific Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes

Abstract 3018

The variable regions of Ig expressed by malignant B cells can serve as a tumor specific antigen. Clinical trials of idiotype (Id) vaccines have demonstrated humoral responses and prolonged remission duration in a recent phase III trial of follicular lymphoma patients in the first remission (Schuster et al, J Clin Oncol 27: 793S, 2009). However, the potentially immunogenic epitopes derived from Ig that stimulate CD8+ T cell immunity have been incompletely characterized. Here, we identified nine out of 14 candidate peptides derived from the Ig L-chain variable region of the human U266 myeloma line, which generated cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) from 53 HLA A2+ normal donors. These CTLs lines, as well as CTLs line isolated from myeloma patients by stimulation with autologous L-chain Id peptides, specifically produced IFN-γ in response to peptide-pulsed T2 cells and lysed U266 and autologous myeloma cell targets, respectively, but not normal blood B cells. Lysis was HLA class I-dependent, suggesting that primary myeloma cells express Id peptides on the cell surface in combination with HLA molecules. Nine CD8+ Id peptide-specific T-cell clones exhibited the effector memory phenotype and the ability of these T cell clones to eliminate U266 tumor in immune deficient mice is being tested. Finally, sequence analysis revealed shared T-cell epitopes in both framework and CDR regions of the U266 L-chain. CTLs generated against a shared U266 epitope lysed patient-derived myeloma cells expressing the shared sequence, suggesting a strategy to overcome the limitation of patient-specific Id vaccine manufacture. Our data identified novel immunogenic Id L-chain T-cell determinants and suggests that, unlike previously described Ig heavy chains, these sequences harbor common T-cell epitopes that may provide the rationale for shared Id vaccines.