Fig. 6: Combination of anti-CD73 Ab and TLR-7 Agonist enhances T cell-mediated MM-specific cytotoxic activity.

A MM patient (n = 7) BM C8⁺ T cells were co-cultured for 3–5 days with autologous pDCs (1 pDC: 10 T cells) in the presence of isotype control Ab, anti-CD73 Ab, TLR-7 agonist, or anti-CD73 Ab plus TLR-7 agonist. Cells were washed and resuspended in a complete medium without drugs, and then cultured with autologous MM cells (10 T: 1 MM cell) pre-stained with CellTrace violet for 24 h, followed by 7-AAD staining and FACS analysis to quantify CTL-mediated MM cell lysis. Left panel: representative FACS scatter plot shows a decrease in number of viable CellTrace Violet-positive MM cells. MM cells were also cultured alone without immune effector cells for 24 h, and viability data obtained from flow analysis was used for normalization and account for spontaneous MM cells death. Right panel: bar graph shows quantification of CD8⁺ CTL-mediated MM cell lysis, reflected in % Viable MM cells under different treatment conditions, using data obtained in left panel. Percentage of viable MM cells for each treatment versus control (isotype-Ab) is presented. B Bar graph shows normalized NT5E/CD73 and TLR-7 gene enrichment in pDC-MM cell co-cultures versus MM cells alone.