Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences

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IMMUNOTHERAPY IN CANCER – IN VIVO STUDY OF THE ANTITUMOR ACTIVITY OF THE IL-15/IL-15R ALFA COMBINATION IN AN EXPERIMENTAL MODEL OF MELANOMA

GHEORGHIŢA ISVORANU*, B. MARINESCU, MIHAELA SURCEL, C. URSACIUC, GINA MANDA

“Victor Babeş” National Institute of Pathology, 99-101 Splaiul Independenţei, 050096, Bucharest, Romania

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Immunotherapy can be effective in the treatment of cancer patients with disease poorly responding to conventional therapy. Recent progress has indicated that cytokine therapy and tumor vaccination hold promise, particularly in combination with chemotherapeutic agents. Interleukin 15 (IL-15) is a cytokine which has shown anti-tumor activity in various animal models. In the present study, we examined the anti-tumor activity of IL-15 and of the complex of IL-15 with its receptor IL-15Rα in a B16 mouse melanoma model, focusing on the immunomodulatory effect exerted on the natural killer cells (NK). We treated melanoma-bearing mice with IL-15 or IL-15/IL-15Rα combination, and subsequently we scored the spleen NK cells and their activation status by flow cytometry. We found that IL-15/IL-15Rα administration reduced significantly the tumor volume, whilst inducing an early increase of activated NK cells. Taken together, our data suggest that receptor-complexed IL-15 might be a promising modulatory agent for cancer treatment.