title: Harnessing human plasmacytoid dendritic cells as professional APCs.
abstract: The plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC) constitutes a unique DC subset that links the innate and adaptive arm of the immune system. Whereas the unique capability of pDCs to produce large amounts of type I IFNs in response to pathogen recognition is generally accepted,their antigen-presenting function is often neglected since most studies on antigen presentation are aimed at other DC subsets. Recently, pDCs were demonstrated capable to present antigen leading to protective tumor immunity. In this review, we discuss how pDCs could be exploited in the fight against cancer by analyzing their capacity to capture,process and (cross-) present antigen.
authors.affiliation: Department of Tumor Immunology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre and Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jurjen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tel
authors.forename: Anne M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: van der Leun
authors.forename: Carl G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Figdor
authors.forename: Ruurd
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Torensma
authors.forename: I Jolanda M
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: de Vries
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation / Q000276:immunology*; D000938:Antigen-Presenting Cells / Q000276:immunology; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy*