Dendritic cell subsets and implications for cancer immunotherapy

Front Immunol. 2024 Jun 5:15:1393451. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1393451. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a central role in the orchestration of effective T cell responses against tumors. However, their functional behavior is context-dependent. DC type, transcriptional program, location, intratumoral factors, and inflammatory milieu all impact DCs with regard to promoting or inhibiting tumor immunity. The following review introduces important facets of DC function, and how subset and phenotype can affect the interplay of DCs with other factors in the tumor microenvironment. It will also discuss how current cancer treatment relies on DC function, and survey the myriad ways with which immune therapy can more directly harness DCs to enact antitumor cytotoxicity.

Keywords: antigen presentation; cancer immune therapy; cancer vaccination; dendritic cell (DC); dendritic cell subtypes; dendritic cell targeting; dendritic cell vaccine; tumor neoantigen.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Dendritic Cells* / immunology
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy* / methods
  • Neoplasms* / immunology
  • Neoplasms* / therapy
  • Tumor Microenvironment* / immunology

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was funded by the NCI at the NIH (R01CA240983), the Washington University SPORE in Pancreatic Cancer (P50 CA272213), the Washington University School of Medicine Surgical Oncology Basic Science and Translational Research Training Program NCI grant to MC and FZ (T32 CA009621), the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital (for SG), and a gift from the 1440 Foundation to WG.