title: An optimized method for manufacturing a clinical scale dendritic cell-based vaccine for the treatment of glioblastoma.
abstract: Immune-based treatments represent a promising new class of therapy designed to boost the immune system to specifically eradicate malignant cells. Immunotherapy may generate specific anti-tumor immune responses, and dendritic cells (DC), professional antigen-presenting cells, are widely used in experimental cancer immunotherapy. Several reports describe methods for the generation of mature, antigen-pulsed DC for clinical use. Improved quality and standardization are desirable to obtain GMP-compliant protocols. In this study we describe the generation of DC from 31 Glioblastoma (GB) patients starting from their monocytes isolated by immunomagnetic CD14 selection using the CliniMACS® device. Upon differentiation of CD14+ with IL-4 and GM-CSF, DC were induced to maturation with TNF-α, PGE(2), IL-1β, and IL-6. Whole tumor lysate was obtained, for the first time, in a closed system using the semi-automated dissociator GentleMACS®. The yield of proteins improved by 130% compared to the manual dissociation method. Interestingly the Mean Fluorescence Intensity for CD83 increased significantly in DC pulsed with "new method" lysate compared to DC pulsed with "classical method" lysate. Our results indicate that immunomagnetic isolation of CD14(+) monocytes using the CliniMACS® device and their pulsing with whole tumor lysate proteins is a suitable method for clinical-scale generation of high quality, functional DC under GMP-grade conditions.
authors.affiliation: Cell Therapy Production Unit - UPTC, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nava
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dossena
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pogliani
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pellegatta
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Antozzi
authors.forename: Fulvio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baggi
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gellera
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pollo
authors.forename: Eugenio A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Parati
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Finocchiaro
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frigerio
mesh_terms: D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines