title: Antitumor cytotoxicity mediated by ligand-activated human V alpha24 NKT cells.
abstract: Human V alpha24 NKT cells bearing an invariant V alpha24J alphaQ antigen receptor, the counterpart of the murine V alpha14 NKT cells, are activated by the specific ligand, alpha-galactosylceramide (alpha-GalCer) in a CD1d-dependent manner. Here, we demonstrate that the alpha-GalCer-activated V alpha24 NKT cells exert a potent perforin-dependent cytotoxic activity against a wide variety of human tumor cell lines. In addition, we demonstrate that V alpha24 NKT cells and dendritic cells (DCs) from melanoma patients are functionally normal, even in the tumor-bearing status. The potential use of alpha-GalCer-activated V alpha24 NKT cells and/or DCs from patients for cancer immunotherapy is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology Project and Department of Molecular Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawano
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kamada
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ogura
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Akutsu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Motohashi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iizasa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Endo
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujisawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shinkai
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006017:Glycolipids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C
chemical_list: D006017:Glycolipids