INVIVO AUGMENTATION OF NATURAL-KILLER CELL-ACTIVITY WITH A DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC-ACID FRACTION OF BCG

  • 1 August 1986
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 77  (8) , 808-816
Abstract
A fraction extracted from BCG and designated MY-1, which was composed of 70.0% DNA and 28.0% RNA, was previously reported to possess strong antitumor activities against various syngeneic mouse and guinea pig tumors. An intraperitoneal injection of MY-1 (100 .mu.g) 1 day before rendered mouse peritoneal cells cytotoxic to YAC-1 cells. The effector cells were nonadherent to plastic dishes, and the activity was destroyed by treatment with anti-asialo GM1 antiserum plus complement or carrageenan in vitro, but not with carbonyl-iron or anti-Thy 1.2, suggesting that the cells are natural killer (NK) cells. In vivo augmentation of NK activity was dependent on My-1 dose, and reached the peak 1 day after My-1 injection. Since NK activity in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-nonresponder mice could be augmented by MY-1, the possibility that LPS contaminated the MY-1-augmented NK was excluded. My-1 digested preliminary with DNase lost its NK-inducing activity, suggesting that the DNA entity of MY-1 was essential for the activity. When mice were pretreated with anti-asialo GM1 or carrageenan, MY-1 could not render the peritoneal cells cytotoxic. Antitumor activities of MY-1 were also abolished if the animals were pretreated with anti-asialo GM1 antiserum or carrageenan, suggesting that the activities can be ascribed mainly to activated NK cells.

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