title: Physiological role of plasmacytoid dendritic cells and their potential use in cancer immunity.
abstract: Dendritic cells (DCs) play a pivotal role in the control of innate and adaptive immune responses. They are a heterogeneous cell population, where plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are a unique subset capable of secreting high levels of type I IFNs. It has been demonstrated that pDCs can coordinate events during the course of viral infection, atopy, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. Therefore, pDC, as a main source of type I IFN, is an attractive target for therapeutic manipulations of the immune system to elicit a powerful immune response against tumor antigens in combination with other therapies. The therapeutic vaccination with antigen-pulsed DCs has shown a limited efficacy to generate an effective long-lasting immune response against tumor cells. A rational manipulation and design of vaccines which could include DC subsets outside "Langerhans cell paradigm" might allow us to improve the therapeutic approaches for cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic Arizona, 13400 E. Shea Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85259, USA.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schettini
authors.forename: Pinku
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation / Q000276:immunology; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000276:immunology; D002465:Cell Movement; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D007370:Interferon Type I / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D007370:Interferon Type I