Emerging Strategies of Engineering and Tracking Dendritic Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy

Abstract

Dendritic cells (DCs), a kind of specialized immune cells, play key roles in antitumor immune response and promotion of innate and adaptive immune responses. Recently, many strategies have been developed to utilize DCs in cancer therapy, such as delivering antigens and adjuvants to DCs and using scaffold to recruit and activate DCs. Here we outline how different DC subsets influence antitumor immunity, summarize the FDA-approved vaccines and cancer vaccines under clinical trials, discuss the strategies for engineering DCs and noninvasive tracking of DCs to improve antitumor immunotherapy, and reveal the potential of artificial neural networks for the design of DC based vaccines.

In vivo tracking of adenoviral-transduced iron oxide-labeled bone marrow-derived dendritic cells using magnetic particle imaging

“…3 e–g) to interact with OX40 and ICOS, respectively, on activated T cells [ 52 , 53 ]. This was expected as TNF-α is a component of the maturation cocktail and induces OX40L and ICOSL upregulation [ 1 , 42 ]. It is imperative that DC highly express OX40L as interaction with OX40 leads to IFN-γ production [ 1 , 54 ].…”

“…For cancer patients who are nonresponsive to or metastatically progress after standard of care treatment options, cancer immunotherapy remains an available treatment option [ 1 ]. Cancer immunotherapy initiates the enhancement of one’s own immune system to combat cancer.…”

In vivotracking of adenoviral-transduced iron oxide-labeled bone marrow-derived dendritic cells using magnetic particle imaging

“…3e-g ) to interact with OX40 and ICOS, respectively, on activated T cells [52, 53]. This was expected as TNF-α is a component of the maturation cocktail and induces OX40L and ICOSL upregulation [1, 42]. It is imperative that DC highly express OX40L as interaction with OX40 leads to IFN-γ production [1, 54].…”

“…Despite its popularity, disadvantages have been widely reported and generally fit into two categories. First, SPIO + DC-induced signal void is not specific and cannot be distinguished from tissues whose chemical shift artifacts generate signal loss [1, 18]. Secondly, as SPIO + DC signal void is not linearly related to iron concentration, it is at best a semi-quantitative imaging modality [17] and is limited in its ability to accurately predict treatment outcome.…”

“…For cancer patients who are non-responsive to or metastatically progress after standard of care treatment options, cancer immunotherapy remains an available treatment option [1]. Cancer immunotherapy initiates the enhancement of one's own immune system to combat cancer.…”