Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 9, 2026
Preparation of Tumor Antigen-loaded Mature Dendritic Cells for Immunotherapy
Published on: August 1, 2013
A phase IB study on intravenous synthetic mRNA electroporated dendritic cell immunotherapy in pretreated advanced
S Wilgenhof1, A M T Van Nuffel2, D Benteyn2
1Departments of Medical Oncology; The Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Therapy and Dendritic Cell Bank of the 'Vrije Universiteit Brussel', Brussels, Belgium.
Background:
Autologous monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) electroporated with synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) encoding a CD40 ligand, a constitutively active Toll-like receptor 4 and CD70, together with mRNA encoding fusion proteins of a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-class II targeting signal (DC-LAMP) and a melanoma-associated antigen (MAA); either MAGE-A3, MAGE-C2, tyrosinase or gp100) (TriMixDC-MEL) are superiorly immunogenic.
Patients And Methods:
In this phase IB clinical trial, 24 million viable DCs were administered by four biweekly combined intradermal (id) and intravenous (iv) administrations, and a fifth administration on week 16. The number of iv-administered DCs was escalated in four sequentially treated cohorts. Immune responses were assessed by analysis of antigen specificity of blood-derived T-cells and skin infiltrating lymphocytes (SKILs).
Results:
Fifteen patients with pretreated advanced melanoma tolerated administration of TriMixDC-MEL well. Two patients achieved a complete response and two patients a partial response. All objective responders are progression-free after a follow-up of, respectively, 24+, 28+, 33+, and 34+ months. Post-therapy antigen-specific SKILs were documented in 6 of 12 patients, and antigen-specific CD8(+) T-cells were detected in the blood of 4 of 5 patients.
Conclusions:
Cellular immunotherapy with TriMixDC-MEL is safe and immunogenic. Antitumor activity with durable disease control is observed across the investigated iv-dose levels.
Clinicaltrialsgov Identifier:
NCT01066390.
