Antitumor activity and hydrogen peroxide release by macrophages elicited by trehalose diesters.

Trehalose diesters (natural 6,6'-trehalose dimycolate from Mycobacterium tuberculosis or synthetic (a 76 carbon atom analogue)), when suspended in water, give stable and well-defined emulsions. These emulsions, injected i.p. in mice significantly limit the growth of P815 syngeneic mastocytoma cells. They elicit macrophages with a cytostatic activity against P815 cells in vitro, strong enough to be expressed at low effector to target ratios (E/T = 1.4) or after a short coincubation period (2 hr). The antitumor potential of these macrophages seems to coincide with their ability to release H2O2 upon pharmacologic triggering. Depressed levels of alkaline phosphodiesterase and beta-galactosidase are proposed as other biochemical markers of cytostatic macrophages.