Requirement of tumor-associated antigen-specific CD4+ T cells for an efficient dendritic cell vaccine in antitumor immunotherapy

Immunotherapy. 2013 Jun;5(6):565-7. doi: 10.2217/imt.13.45.

Abstract

Evaluation of: Aarntzen EH, De Vries IJ, Lesterhuis WJ et al. Targeting CD4(+) T-helper cells improves the induction of antitumor responses in dendritic cell-based vaccination. Cancer Res. 73(1), 19-29 (2012). The induction of antitumor immune responses in patients is one of the most sought-after goals in cancer treatment. The proposed clinical approach is to use autologous mature dendritic cells (DCs) loaded with class I peptides from tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), as DCs are the most efficient immune cells to generate strong and specific cytotoxic CD8(+) T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses. To optimize DC-based cancer vaccines, Aarntzen et al. evaluated the necessity to stimulate TAA-specific CD4(+) T-helper cells to reinforce antitumor CTL responses. They demonstrated that intranodal injection of DCs pulsed with class I- and II-restricted TAA epitopes increases TAA-specific CTL responses and induces better clinical responses in stage III/IV melanoma patients than the use of DCs pulsed with class I-restricted TAA epitopes alone. This study highlights the interest of concomitant stimulation of TAA-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells for DC-based antitumor immunotherapy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Cancer Vaccines / immunology*
  • Dendritic Cells / immunology*
  • Dendritic Cells / transplantation*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Melanoma / immunology*
  • Melanoma / therapy*
  • T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / immunology*

Substances

  • Cancer Vaccines