Abstract
First described in the 1970s, dendritic cells (DC) are currently subjects of intense investigation to exploit their unique antigen-presenting and immunoregulatory capacities. In cancer, DC show promise to elicit or amplify immune responses directed against cancer cells by activating natural killer (NK) cells and tumor antigen-specific T cells. Wilms’ tumor 1 (WT1) protein is a tumor-associated antigen that is expressed in a majority of cancer types and has been designated as an antigen of major interest to be targeted in clinical cancer immunotherapy trials. In this chapter, we describe the generation, cryopreservation, and thawing of clinical grade autologous monocyte-derived DC vaccines that are loaded with WT1 by messenger RNA (mRNA) electroporation. This in-house-developed transfection method gives rise to presentation of multiple antigen epitopes and can be used for all patients without restriction of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by research grants of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO Vlaanderen), Foundation against Cancer (Stichting tegen Kanker), Vlaamse Liga tegen Kanker, National Cancer Plan Action 29, King Baudouin Foundation, and the Methusalem program of the Flemish Government. E.S. is a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders. Y.W. is holder of a predoctoral fellowship of the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) and S.A. of an Emmanuel Van der Schueren fellowship of the Vlaamse Liga tegen Kanker.
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Smits, E.L.J.M. et al. (2016). Generation and Cryopreservation of Clinical Grade Wilms’ Tumor 1 mRNA-Loaded Dendritic Cell Vaccines for Cancer Immunotherapy. In: Bondanza, A., Casucci, M. (eds) Tumor Immunology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1393. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3338-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3338-9_3
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