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Preparation of Tumor Antigen-loaded Mature Dendritic Cells for Immunotherapy
Published on: August 1, 2013
Poly(I:C)-induced tumour cell death leads to DC maturation and Th1 activation
Edit Kovalcsik1, Katie Lowe, Mike Fischer
1Systems Immunology Group, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, St George's University of London, UK.
Abstract:
Dendritic cells (DCs) have the ability to generate peptide epitopes for MHC class I molecules derived from apoptotic tumour cells for direct recognition by cytotoxic T cells. This function has lead to DCs being used in vaccine strategies. In this study, we investigate the effect of inducing apoptosis in tumour cell lines using IFN-γ and poly(I:C), the subsequent maturation of the endocytosing DC and its ability to direct the resulting T cell response. We show that uptake of poly(I:C)-induced apoptotic tumour cells leads to DC maturation and activation with a Th1 cell polarising capacity. In contrast, these effects are not seen by DCs loaded with γ-irradiated apoptotic tumour cells. We propose that the manner in which tumour cells are induced to die can have a profound effect on the endocytosing DC and the resulting T cell response.
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