Expansion of natural killer cells in mice transgenic for IgM antibody to ganglioside GD2: demonstration of prolonged survival after challenge with syngeneic tumor cells

IgM antibodies to gangliosides, sialic acid-containing glycosphingolipids, have been shown to mediate anti-tumor effects in cancer patients with melanoma and neuroblastoma and to correlate with survival. Mechanisms by which the antibodies induce tumor suppression, however, have not been systematically studied. To investigate this point, we produced and characterized C57BL/6 mice transgenic for IgM antibody to ganglioside GD2. The transgenic (TG) mice showed high IgM, but not IgG antibody titers against GD2 in their sera. No significant clinical symptoms were observed. When EL4 cells, syngeneic T lymphoma that express ganglioside GD2, were injected into TG mice, prolonged survival was observed. Complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) of EL4 cells was mediated with TG mice sera. Neither antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity with their sera nor cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity to EL4 cells was shown in TG mice. Spleen lymphocytes from TG mice had increased numbers of natural killer (NK) cells, but not T cells, B cells, or macrophages compared with wild-type mice. Depletion of NK cells with anti-asialo GM1 rabbit serum reduced or abrogated the observed anti-tumor effects, suggesting that NK cells play a major role in tumor eradication or suppression. NK cell activity in TG mice was much higher than wild-type mice. Moreover, TG mice showed prolonged survival after injection with syngeneic B16 melanoma cells, which express GM3, but not GD2 or GD3. Taking these results together, our studies demonstrate that the TG mice have significant anti-tumor characteristics, probably due to CDC and NK cell expansion and activation with anti-ganglioside GD2 antibody.