title: mRNA-based dendritic cell vaccines.
abstract: Cancer immunotherapy has been proposed as a powerful treatment modality. Active immunotherapy aspires to stimulate the patient's immune system, particularly T cells. These cells can recognize and kill cancer cells and can form an immunological memory. Dendritic cells (DCs) are the professional antigen-presenting cells of our immune system. They take up and process antigens to present them to T cells. Consequently, DCs have been investigated as a means to stimulate cancer-specific T-cell responses. An efficient strategy to program DCs is the use of mRNA, a well-defined and safe molecule that can be easily generated at high purity. Importantly, vaccines consisting of mRNA-modified DCs showed promising results in clinical trials. Therefore, we will introduce cancer immunotherapy and DCs and give a detailed overview on the application of mRNA to generate cancer-fighting DC vaccines.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Therapy, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103/E, 1090 Jette, Belgium.
authors.forename: Daphné
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Benteyn
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Heirman
authors.forename: Aude
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bonehill
authors.forename: Kris
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thielemans
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Breckpot
mesh_terms: D017951:Antigen Presentation; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology*; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D016233:Immunotherapy, Active; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D012333:RNA, Messenger
keywords: cancer; cytotoxic T cell; dendritic cell; mRNA; tumor antigen