Basic Study for Autologous Vaccine Therapy for Neuroblastoma

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15591894
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Pediatric surgery
Research Institution	Osaka University
Principal Investigator	FUKUZAWA Masahiro Osaka University, Graduate School of Medicine, Professor, 医学系研究科, 教授 (60165272)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	YONEDA Akihiro Osaka University, Graduate School of Medicine, Assistant Professor, 医学系研究科, 助手 (30372618) 越永従道日本大学, 医学部, 助教授 (70205376)
Project Period (FY)	2003 – 2004
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2004)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000) Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000) Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Keywords	Neuroblastoma / CpG-ODN / apoptosis / GM-CSF / Vaccine Therapy / GM-CS
Research Abstract	The aim of the study was to clarify the anti-tumor effect of combination vaccine therapy using irradiated autologous neuroblastoma and CpG oligonucleotide with or without GM-CSF which activates dendritic cells, in a mouse model. Also we investigated the effect of this vaccine therapy to minimal residual disease. We inoculated weakly-immunogenic Neuro-2a cells in syngeneic A/J mouse. After resection of the subcutaneous tumor mass, these cells were prepared by irradiation and then used for vaccination. CpG ODN and GM-CSF producing B78H1 cells were injected together with the vaccination. Tumor growth in the vaccination after surgery group was significantly suppressed relative to the control, surgery alone, and vaccination alone groups. Survival was also significantly improved in the vaccination after surgery group. Although the production of IFN-γ in spleen cells was suppressed by the combination vaccine therapy in a mouse with huge tumor, the production was activated in a mouse whose tumor had been resected. Thus, this combination vaccine therapy was more effective in a mouse with minimal residual disease than in a mouse with huge tumor.