Loretta Gammaitoni, Lidia Giraudo, Marco Macagno, Valeria Leuci, Giulia Mesiano, Ramona Rotolo, Francesco Sassi, Martina Sanlorenzo, Alessandro Zaccagna, Alberto Pisacane, Rebecca Senetta, Michela Cangemi, Giulia Cattaneo, Valentina Martin, Valentina Coha, Susanna Gallo, Ymera Pignochino, Anna Sapino, Giovanni Grignani, Fabrizio Carnevale-Schianca, Massimo Aglietta, Dario Sangiolo
Purpose: The MHC-unrestricted activity of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells against chemo-surviving melanoma cancer stem cells (mCSC) was explored, as CSCs are considered responsible for chemoresistance and relapses. Experimental Design: Putative mCSCs were visualized by engineering patient-derived melanoma cells (MC) with a lentiviral vector encoding eGFP under expression control by stemness gene promoter oct4 Their stemness potential was confirmed in vivo by limiting dilution assays. We explored the sensitivity of eGFP+ mCSCs to chemotherapy (CHT), BRAF inhibitor (BRAFi) or CIK cells, as single agents or in sequence, in vitro First, we treated MCs in vitro with fotemustine or dabrafenib (BRAF-mutated cases); then, surviving MCs, enriched in mCSCs, were challenged with autologous CIK cells...
May 1, 2017: Clinical Cancer Research