Abstract 541: Successful oncolytic virotherapy in a bortezomib resistant syngeneic mouse model of multiple myeloma: Implications for translational significance
Authors: Thirukkumaran Chandini M. , Shi Zhong Qiao , Luider Joanne , Kopciuk Karen , Chesi Marta , Bergsagel Leif , Dong Yuan , Zhang Chunfen , Mostafa Ahmed , Gratton Kathy , Thakur Satbir , Morris Don 
Published: July 2016

Introduction: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignancy of plasma cells that is still considered incurable due to the 90% relapse rate in patients. Despite the advent of new agents the majority of MM patients relapse secondary to therapy resistance. The potential of reovirus (RV) as a novel therapeutic agent for MM under in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo conditions has been demonstrated by us and a phase I clinical trial of MM with RV therapy has shown indications of efficacy. Recently we have shown that RV could synergize with several standard of care MM drugs such as bortezomib (BTZ), carfilzomib (CFZ) and dexamethasone and importantly, enhance its therapeutic potential in therapy resistant human MM cell lines in vitro. Utilizing the syngeneic Vk*MYC BTZ resistant transplantable MM mouse model, we demonstrate that mice harbouring BTZ insensitive MM tumors significantly respond to RV treatment. Our data indicate that this RV treatment sensitivity is manifested via, direct oncolysis in conjunction with immune modulatory effects.

Methods: Vk*MYC myeloma cells (Vk12598) were injected via tail vein (IV) into 3 groups of C57BL/6 wt recipient mice. Seven days post tumor injection, mice were treated with PBS (vehicle) or live (LV) or dead reovirus (DV) (5×10⁁8 PFU) administered IV every 6 days in a total of 5 doses. Serum gamma globulins (M-spike) were assessed weekly by serum protein electrophoresis. Mice were sacrificed on day 35 post tumour injection and their spleens and bone marrow (BM) were harvested. Splenic and BM cells were stained for CD45+/CD45R-/CD138+ (MM tumors), CD4+/CD8+ (T cells), CD3+/NKG2D+ (NKT cells), CD11b+Ly6C+ (monocytic myeloid derived suppressor cells (Mo-MDSC) and CD11b+Ly6G+ (polymorphonuclear (PMN) - MDSCs) and analyzed by flow cytometry.

Results: Mice treated with RV demonstrated highly significant (P&lt;0.001) reductions in their M-spikes at 4 and 5 weeks post treatment. RV treatment led to a significant NKT cell accumulation in splenic and BM of RV treated mice in comparison to vehicle treated mice suggestive of immune activation due to RV. Further, RV treatment led to a significant increase in BM Mo-MDSC number but not PMN-MDSC numbers. Interestingly, significant down regulation of splenic PMN-MDSCs was seen with RV treatment.

Conclusions: Our results indicate reovirotherapy is successful in a validated syngeneic BTZ resistant MM model. These results have important implications for future clinical trials. Currently we are conducting further experiments to assess the immune modulatory (such as T - memory and T - regulatory cells) contributions of RV in this model.

Citation Format: Chandini M. Thirukkumaran, Zhong Qiao Shi, Joanne Luider, Karen Kopciuk, Marta Chesi, Leif Bergsagel, Yuan Dong, Chunfen Zhang, Ahmed Mostafa, Kathy Gratton, Satbir Thakur, Don Morris. Successful oncolytic virotherapy in a bortezomib resistant syngeneic mouse model of multiple myeloma: Implications for translational significance. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 541.