Dendritic and T cell therapy

Our immune system is the top notch defense against bacteria and viruses trying to invade our bodies everyday. We have so many cells within our immune system all with different roles but all equally as important. Dendritic cells are part of the first line defense, when PRRs are activated the dendritic cells become professional antigen presenting cell. They move into the lymphatic system and show the T- cells the corresponding pathogen, activating the T-cells. T cells then proceed to either kill infected cells or to induce B-cell activation.

Researchers and scientists have taken advantage of this system and have modified it for immunotherapy against many cancers. In one example, CAR- Tcell therapy is when a sample of a patient’s T cells are collected from the blood, then modified to produce special structures called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) on their surface. When these CAR T cells are reintroduced into the patient, the new receptors enable them to latch onto a specific antigen on the patient’s tumor cells and kill them (Cellular Therapies Program). Recently new therapy methods have emerged in the article Engineering dendritic cell vaccines to improve cancer immunotherapy they are working to provide a blueprint for the rational design of optimized dendritic cell vaccines for personalized cancer medicine. Also, in another article Dendritic Cells Loaded with Heat Shock-Conditioned Ovarian Epithelial Carcinoma Cell Lysates Elicit T Cell-Dependent Antitumor Immune Responses In Vitro they are targeting ovarian tumors with a similar dendritic cell vaccine.

Ovarian carcinoma is a very aggressive tumor and so many new immunotherapies have been considered as a combination therapy alongside traditional methods like chemo and radiation. It has been demonstrated that effector T cells move into the tumor site, the prognosis and survival is much better. the article says that in their laboratory they have developed an autologous DC-based immunotherapy directed against advanced malignant melanoma, called TAPCells (tumor antigen-presenting cells), which consist in ex vivo-generated monocyte-derived DC, loaded with an allogeneic heat shocked melanoma lysate that is able to activate the immune system and induce a specific antitumor response in cancer patients. They are seeing promising results and very little side effects. The cost of dendritic cell vaccine preparation was € 20,450 per patient making it quite expensive for the average person.