Recent advances in dendritic cell vaccines for cancer treatment.
Dendritic cells (DC) are special subsets of antigen presenting cells characterized by their unique abilities to efficiently take up, process, and present various forms of antigens to immunologically naive T cells. Recent advances in the understanding of molecular mechanisms regulating the functions of DC have allowed the investigators to "design" innovative DC-based vaccine formats for the treatment of cancer patients. In this article, we will review the most advanced DC vaccine strategies, focusing on three major areas: a) new ex vivo protocols for DC loading with tumor-associated antigens (TAA), b) genetic approaches to load skin-resident Langerhans cells (LC) with TAA, and c) chemokine-mediated LC entrapment and in situ loading of LC with TAA at the entrapment sites. We believe that these new classes of DC vaccine strategies will soon become applicable to the treatment of patients with malignant tumors.
Kumamoto
T
T
Department of Dermatology, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas 75390-9069, USA.
Morita
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Takashima
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D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*
D019496:Cancer Vaccines