Potential Therapeutic Use of PPARgamma-Programed Human Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells in Cancer Vaccination Therapy

Dendritic cells (DCs) can regulate all elements of the immune system, and therefore are an ideal target for vaccination. During the last two decades, as a result of extensive research, DCs became the primary target of antitumor vaccination as well. A critical issue of antitumor vaccination is the phenotype of the dendritic cell used. It has been recently shown that several nuclear hormone receptors, and amongst them the lipid-activated nuclear receptor and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), have important roles in effecting the immunophenotype of human dendritic cells. It regulates primarily lipid metabolism and via this it influences the immunophenotype of DCs by altering lipid antigen uptake, presentation, and also other immune functions. In this review, we summarize the principles of antitumor vaccination strategies and present our hypothesis on how PPARgamma-regulated processes might be involved and could be exploited in the design of vaccination strategies.