Dendritic Cell-Based Immunotherapy for Prostate Cancer

Figure 1

DC-based immunotherapeutic strategies for prostate cancer. DCs display a unique capacity to induce and maintain T-cell responses and emerged as promising candidates for vaccination strategies in prostate cancer therapy. Thus, DCs are loaded with PCa-associated antigen-derived peptides, protein, or RNA. Due to their high surface expression of HLA-peptide-complexes and costimulatory molecules, DCs efficiently activate and expand CD8⁺ CTLs and CD4⁺ T cells. CD8⁺ CTLs possess a profound capability to recognize and destroy tumor cells. CD4⁺ T cells enhance the capacity of DCs to induce CTLs by the interaction between CD40 on DCs and CD40 ligand on activated CD4⁺ T cells. In addition, they provide help for the maintenance and expansion of CTLs by secreting cytokines and are able to eradicate tumor cells directly. CTLs: cytotoxic T cells; DCs: dendritic cells; HLA: human leukocyte antigen; IL: interleukin; IFN: interferon; TCR: T cell receptor; TU: tumor cells.