Opposing effects of the interferon inducer, avridine: Enhancement or suppression of tumor growth depending on treatment regimen

Abstract

Tumor growth and regression was studied in C57BL/6J mice injected with Moloney sarcoma virus (MSV) and treated with the interferon (IFN)-inducing drug, avridine. Avridine decreased the persistence of tumors when given one or five days after virus, but shortened the prepatent period and increased persistence if given one day prior to virus. Additional studies were undertaken to study the role that serum interferon and natural killer (NK) cell activity might have in this phenomenon. Interferon levels were greatly enhanced (over that induced by virus alone or avridine alone) when avridine was given one day after, but not one day before, virus. Six days after viral infection, interferon titers had returned to near zero but could be boosted by injecting avridine at day 5. Multiple injections of avridine before and after virus resulted in refractoriness to interferon induction and tumor persistence. NK activity was greatly increased by virus at two days post-infection, and avridine given one day after infection significantly enhanced cytotoxicity of these splenic cells against tumor cells. By six days after infection, NK activity had returned to normal but could be increased by avridine given at five days post-infection. It appeared that high levels of interferon induced by avridine given at one or five days after infection increased NK activity and may have been responsible for enhanced regression. Pre-treatment by avridine had little effect on interferon levels over that induced by virus alone, but that did not explain the enhancement of tumor growth since NK activity was increased. These studies demonstrated that the growth of a viral-induced tumor in vivo could be either inhibited or enhanced by an IFN inducer depending on the timing of administration relative to tumor challenge.