Combined treatment of colorectal tumours with agonistic TRAIL receptor antibodies HGS-ETR1 and HGS-ETR2 and radiotherapy: enhanced effects in vitro and dose-dependent growth delay in vivo

We and others have demonstrated already that TRAIL (TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand) is a very promising candidate for molecular targeted anticancer therapy, especially when combined with ionizing radiation or other DNA-damaging agents. Agonist monoclonal antibodies that activate and are specific for the death signaling TRAIL receptors are an alternative method to stimulate the programmed cell death pathway. Phase 1 clinical trials have subsequently been conducted and shown a very good tolerability of these antibodies. In order to assess the efficacy of TRAIL receptor stimulation to induce cell death by this alternate method, we studied the combination of the agonistic-TRAIL receptor antibodies HGS-ETR1 and HGS-ETR2 with radiation in vitro and in vivo. Induction of apoptosis after combined treatment with TRAIL receptor antibodies HGS-ETR1 and/or HGS-ETR2 (0.01, 0.1, 1.0 mg/ml) and irradiation with 2, 5 or 10 Gy was determined by fluorescence microscopy and Western blot analysis of caspase-8 and PARP. The colorectal tumour cell lines Colo 205, HCT 116 and HCT-15 were used for in vitro experiments. Growth delay experiments were performed with combined treatment with fractionated irradiation (days 1–5 and 3 Gy single dose/day) and the receptor antibodies (intraperitonially, three different concentrations, application on days 1, 4 and 8) on Colo 205 xenograft-bearing NMRI (nu/nu) nude mice. HGS-ETR1 and HGS-ETR2 induced apoptotic cell death in a dose-dependent fashion and significantly increased cell death in combination with irradiation in vitro when compared to either irradiation or antibody treatment alone. The efficacy of the combined treatment seems to be at least partially Bax-dependent. Similar to the results from cell culture experiments, in vivo experiments demonstrated a dose-dependent delay in tumour growth after combined treatment. In vivo, in the Colo205 xenograft model, HGS-ETR2 revealed a higher activity than HGS-ETR1. This is the first study to demonstrate significant efficacy of combined treatment with the monoclonal agonistic TRAIL receptor antibodies HGS-ETR1 and HGS-ETR2 and ionising radiation in in vitro and in vivo models. We postulate that HGS-ETR1 and HGS-ETR2 will be very promising new agents in the field of molecular targeted multi-modality anticancer therapy.