The potential role of functional inhibition of T regulatory cells by anti-TGFβ antibody in photodynamic therapy of renal cancer

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been shown to be an effective locally ablative anti-cancer treatment that has the additional advantage of inducing tumor-directed immune response. We hypothesized that PDT could be combined with anti-transforming growth factor (TGF) beta antibody that does not significantly affect the population of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) but at the same time, has the potential to decrease the immunosuppressive effects of regulatory T-cells (Treg) mediated by TGF beta. This hypothesis was tested with aTGF-beta antibody combined with BPD-mediated PDT in a BALB/c renal cell carcinoma model. Evidence of positive benefits of the combination therapy over individual treatments alone was obtained.