Generation of Tumor Antigen-Specific Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes from Pluripotent Stem Cells

Immunotherapy is a developing but very promising arsenal to treat cancer. Acquiring a more potent and effective approach in cancer immunotherapy is always the ultimate pursuance. CTL-based therapies are highly acclaimed recently due to its direct killing property. However, difficulty in obtaining adequate number of CTLs is still a major obstacle. In previous studies, it is shown that pluripotent stem cell-derived cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL)-especially the genetically engineered tumor antigen-specific CTLs-may serve as a good candidate for this goal. Here we introduce a novel approach in generating tumor antigen-specific CTLs from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by using both in vitro and in vivo priming mechanisms for the tumor management in a murine melanoma model.