Role of Vincristine in Immunochemotherapy of Leukemia in Mouse or Human Models

Abstract Synergistic antitumor effects between Vincristine (VCR) and allograft responses. have been found in mice bearing allogeneic retrovirus-induced leukemia. In this model VCR depressed weakly allograft reactivity if given before but not after antigen administration. In a parallel human tumor model in vitro using HTLV-1 induced MT-2 leukemia, additive but not synergistic immuno-chemotherapeutic effects were obtained with allogeneic mononuclear cells (MNC) combined with VCR at 0.1 but not at 1 mμg/ml. In this case natural immunity (NI) rather than antigen-dependent immunity (ADI) was involved in the combined effets of VCR + MNC. In the in vitro model pretreatment of effector cells with 1 or 0.1 mμg/ml of VCR depressed natural cell-mediated cytotoxicity (NCMC). However when the drug was added to the effector + target cells during the 4 h cytotoxicity assay, 1 but not 0.1 mμg/ml of the drug was capable of depressing NCMC function. These results would provide valuable information for developing in vitro immuno-chemotherapy studies in human tumor systems, including those characterized by the presence of tumor-associated oncogenic retroviruses, capable of depressing both NI and ADI functions.