Cancer immunotherapy has proven to be challenging as it depends on overcoming multiple mechanisms that mediate immune tolerance to self-antigens. In situ immunization is based on the concept that it is possible to break immune tolerance by inducing tumor cell death in situ in a manner that provides antigen presenting cells such as dendritic cells (DCs) with a wide selection of tumor antigens that can then be presented to the immune system and result in a therapeutic anticancer immune response. Based on recent advances in the understanding of antitumor immunity, we designed a three-step approach to in situ immunization to lymphoma: (1) Inducing immunogenic tumor cell death with the chemotherapeutic drug Doxorubicin (Dox). Dox enhances the expression of "eat-me" signals by dying tumor cells, facilitating their phagocytosis by dendritic cells (DCs). Due to the vesicant activity of Dox, microparticles (MPs) made of PLGA (a biodegradable polymer) can safely deliver Dox intratumorally and are effective vaccine adjuvants; (2) Enhancing antigen presentation and T cell activation using anti-OX40; (3) Sustaining T cell responses by checkpoint blockade using anti-CTLA-4. In vitro, Dox MPs were less cytotoxic to DCs than to B lymphoma cells, did not require internalization by the lymphoma cells, and significantly enhanced phagocytosis of tumor cells by DCs as compared to soluble Dox. In mice, this three-step therapy induced CD4- and CD8-dependent systemic immune responses that enhanced T cell infiltration into distant lymphoma tumors leading to their eradication and significantly improving survival. Our findings demonstrate that systemic antitumor immune responses can be generated locally by three-step therapy and merit further investigation of three-step therapy for immunotherapy of lymphoma patients. Furthermore, we designed another in situ immunization approach using PLGA MPs loaded with both Dox and CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG). The addition of CpG was to further enhance the Dox MP design by including an agent that addresses Step Two in situ, by enhancing tumor antigen presentation by DCs. In vitro, we show that Dox/CpG MPs can kill B and T lymphoma cells and are less toxic to DCs than soluble Dox. In vivo, Dox/CpG MPs combined with anti-CTLA-4 and anti-OX40 generated systemic immune responses that suppressed injected and distant tumors in a murine B lymphoma model, leading to tumor-free mice. The combination regimen was also effective at reducing T cell lymphoma and melanoma tumor burdens. In conclusion, Dox/CpG MPs represent a versatile, efficient and safe tool for in situ immunization that could provide a promising component of immunotherapy for patients with a variety of types of cancer.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:16:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AliceRO_DISSERT.pdf: 2104659 bytes, checksum: 208850f5293dd4764037ec4c490d3636 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-19 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Methotrexate (MTX) is a drug used in the chemotherapy of some kind of cancers, autoimmune diseases and non inflammatory resistant to corticosteroids uveits. However, the rapid plasmatic elimination limits its therapeutic success, which leads to administration of high doses to maintain the therapeutic levels in the target tissues, occurring potential side effects. The aim of this study was to obtain spray dried biodegradable poly-lactic acid co-glycolic acid (PLGA) microparticles containing MTX. Thus, suitable amounts of MTX and PLGA were dissolved in appropriate solvent system to obtain solutions at different ratios drug/polymer (10, 20, 30 and 50% m/m). The physicochemical characterizing included the quantitative analysis of the drug using a validate UV-VIS spectrophotometry method, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared spectrophotometry (IR), thermal analyses and X-ray diffraction analysis. The in vitro release studies were carried out in a thermostatized phosphate buffer pH 7.4 (0.05 M KH2PO4) medium at 37?C ? 0.2 ?C. The in vitro release date was subjected to different kinetics release models. The MTX-loaded PLGA microparticles showed a spherical shape with smooth surface and high level of entrapped drug. The encapsulation efficiency was greater then 80%. IR spectroscopy showed that there was no chemical bond between the compounds, suggesting just the possible occurrence of hydrogen bound interactions. The thermal analyses and X-ray diffraction analysis shown that MTX is homogeneously dispersed inside polymeric matrix, with a prevalent amorphous state or in a stable molecular dispersion. The in vitro release studies confirmed the sustained release for distinct MTX-loaded PLGA microparticles. The involved drug release mechanism was non Fickian diffusion, which was confirmed by Kornmeyer-Peppas kinetic model. The experimental results demonstrated that the MTX-loaded PLGA microparticles were successfully obtained by spray drying and its potential as prolonged drug release system. / O metotrexato (MTX) ? um f?rmaco utilizado na quimioterapia de alguns tipos de c?ncer, doen?as autoimunes e uve?tes n?o inflamat?rias resistentes aos corticoster?ides. No entanto, sua r?pida elimina??o plasm?tica limita o sucesso terap?utico, levando ? necessidade de altas doses para manuten??o da concentra??o efetiva no tecido alvo, ocasionando o potencial surgimento de rea??es adversas. O objetivo principal desse estudo foi obter um sistema microparticulado biodegrad?vel ? base de ?cido poli (?cido l?tico-co-?cido glic?lico) (PLGA) por spray drying para libera??o prolongada do MTX. Para isso, quantidades distintas de MTX e PLGA foram dissolvidas em sistema solvente adequado para obter solu??es com diferentes propor??es de f?rmaco em rela??o ao pol?mero (10, 20, 30 e 50% m/m). A caracteriza??o f?sicoqu?mica incluiu an?lise quantitativa do f?rmaco incorporado na matriz polim?rica por espectrofotometria UV-VIS em 303nm previamente validada, microscopia eletr?nica de varredura (MEV), espectrofotometria de infravermelho (IV), an?lises t?rmicas e difra??o de raios-X (DRX). O perfil de libera??o in vitro do f?rmaco nas micropart?culas foi realizado em tamp?o fosfato (0.05 M KH2PO4) em banho termostatizado 37 ?C ? 0.2 ?C. Os dados obtidos do estudo de libera??o in vitro foram submetidos a diferentes modelos cin?ticos de libera??o. As micropart?culas de PLGA contendo o MTX apresentaram a forma esf?rica, uniforme, com superf?cie aparentemente lisa. O n?vel de efici?ncia de encapsula??o foi superior a 80%. A espectroscopia na regi?o do infravermelho demonstrou que n?o ocorreu liga??o qu?mica entre os componentes dos sistemas, no entanto foi observado forte intera??o entre o MTX e PLGA indicando prov?vel ocorr?ncia de pontes de hidrog?nio. An?lise XII t?rmica e DRX demonstraram que o MTX est? distribu?do na matriz polim?rica com a preval?ncia do estado amorfo ou em dispers?o molecular. O estudo de libera??o in vitro confirmou o perfil de libera??o prolongada para as diferentes micropart?culas. O mecanismo de libera??o envolvido foi por difus?o n?o Fickiana, ao qual foi determinado a partir do modelo cin?tico de Kornmeyer- Peppas. Os resultados experimentais demonstraram o sucesso na obten??o das micropart?culas de PLGA contendo o MTX por spray drying e seu potencial como sistema de libera??o prolongada do f?rmaco.