Decreased sensitivity of drug-resistant cells towards T cell cytotoxicity

Killing of target cells by cytotoxic T cells is mediated by induction of apoptosis requiring functional death pathways. Kill is mediated either by the CD95 or the perforin/granzyme pathway. We found that SH-EP neuroblastoma cells are preferentially killed via CD95, while in the T leukemia cell line CEM CD95 and perforin/granzyme are involved. In both types of cell lines, cells resistant to CD95- and drug-induced apoptosis are cross-resistant to cytotoxic T cell kill. Resistant cells show decreased apoptosis and deficient activation of caspases indicated by decreased cleavage of the prototype caspase substrate PARP. Preincubation with the caspase inhibitor zVAD-fmk strongly decreased LAK cell kill in sensitive cells. Although parental CEM cells could be sensitized for LAK kill by preincubation with doxorubicin, resistance could not be reverted in doxorubicin or CD95 resistant CEM cells. These data demonstrate the crossresistance in induction of apoptosis by different cytotoxic regimens in tumor cells and may have implications for the immunotherapy of tumors in which apoptosis resistance was induced by previous chemotherapy.