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Dendritic Cell and Cancer Therapy 2.0
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Dendritic Cell and Cancer Therapy 2.0

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2024 | Viewed by 10108

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Domenico Galati

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Hematology-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Unit, Department of Hematology and Innovative Diagnostic, Istituto Nazionale Tumori-IRCCS-Fondazione “G. Pascale” Napoli, 80131 Napoli, Italy
Interests: dendritic cells; immunotherapy; gamma-delta T cells; cancer biomarkers; tumor immunology; cytometry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I'm very pleased to announce the second edition of the Special Issue entitled “Dendritic Cells and Cancer therapy 2.0”.

The strategies for cancer immunotherapy have obtained mixed results mainly due to immune suppression and several immune escape mechanisms induced by tumor cells. In this regard, Dendritic Cells have become a hopeful instrument for cancer vaccines that aims to re-educate the immune system, leading to a potent anti-cancer response that is able to overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. However, cancer cells can deregulate Dendritic Cell function by a combination of different mechanisms, including antigen down-regulation and secretion of molecules that together adjust the immune-stimulating or the immune-suppressive functional plasticity of Dendritic Cells. 

Therefore, new insights will be helpful to define molecules and pathways that can modulate the performance of Dendritic Cell subsets. In particular, a better comprehension of the complex interactions occurring in the tumor microenvironment will undoubtedly improve the design of really efficient and durable immunotherapeutic approaches for tumor disease control.

The purpose of the second edition is to deepen the new strategies aimed at further improving the effectiveness of DC-based cancer immunotherapy.

Dr. Domenico Galati
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • dendritic cells
  • dendritic cell subsets
  • cancer immunotherapy
  • immune suppression
  • cancer vaccines
  • anti-cancer response
  • tumor microenvironment

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 1905 KiB  
Article
Chemoradiotherapy and Lymph Node Metastasis Affect Dendritic Cell Infiltration and Maturation in Regional Lymph Nodes of Laryngeal Cancer
by Kanako Kawasaki, Keita Kai, Akimichi Minesaki, Sachiko Maeda, Moriyasu Yamauchi and Yuichiro Kuratomi
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(4), 2093; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25042093 - 08 Feb 2024
Viewed by 563
Abstract
Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most specialized antigen-presenting cells, and lymph nodes (LNs) play an important role in the DC-mediated T-cell response. We evaluated the infiltration of CD1a-positive DCs (CD1a-DCs), i.e., immature DCs, and S100-positive dendritic cells (S100-DCs), a mixture of immature and [...] Read more.
Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most specialized antigen-presenting cells, and lymph nodes (LNs) play an important role in the DC-mediated T-cell response. We evaluated the infiltration of CD1a-positive DCs (CD1a-DCs), i.e., immature DCs, and S100-positive dendritic cells (S100-DCs), a mixture of immature and mature DCs, in 73 cases of laryngeal cancer and its regional LNs. Among them, 31 patients underwent radiotherapy (RT) or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) prior to surgery. No significant difference was found for CD1a-DC infiltration in the primary tumors, metastatic LNs and non-metastatic LNs, while S100-DCs were significantly fewer in number in the primary tumors and metastatic LNs compared to non-metastatic LNs. The cases which showed a high infiltration of S100-DCs in the metastatic LNs appeared to show a favorable prognosis, although statistical significance was not reached. In the RT/CRT group, the infiltration of the CD1a-DCs and S100-DCs was less in the primary tumors and metastatic LNs compared to the treatment-naive group. Conversely, the RT/CRT group showed higher CD1a-DC and S100-DC numbers in the non-metastatic LNs compared to the treatment-naïve group. Thus, DC maturation in metastatic LNs plays an important role in tumor immunity in laryngeal cancer, and the infiltration of DCs into the primary tumor and metastatic LNs is impaired by RT/CRT. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dendritic Cell and Cancer Therapy 2.0)
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20 pages, 3135 KiB  
Article
Dendritic Cell Subpopulations Are Associated with Prognostic Characteristics of Breast Cancer after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy—An Observational Study
by Agnieszka Łazarczyk, Joanna Streb, Anna Glajcar, Anna Streb-Smoleń, Przemysław Hałubiec, Kacper Wcisło, Łukasz Laskowicz, Diana Hodorowicz-Zaniewska and Joanna Szpor
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(21), 15817; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242115817 - 31 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 986
Abstract
Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent malignancy in women and researchers have strived to develop optimal strategies for its diagnosis and management. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), which reduces tumor size, risk of metastasis and patient mortality, often also allows for a de-escalation of [...] Read more.
Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent malignancy in women and researchers have strived to develop optimal strategies for its diagnosis and management. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), which reduces tumor size, risk of metastasis and patient mortality, often also allows for a de-escalation of breast and axillary surgery. Nonetheless, complete pathological response (pCR) is achieved in no more than 40% of patients who underwent NAC. Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells present in the tumor microenvironment. The multitude of their subtypes was shown to be associated with the pathological and clinical characteristics of BC, but it was not evaluated in BC tissue after NAC. We found that highe r densities of CD123+ plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) were present in tumors that did not show pCR and had a higher residual cancer burden (RCB) score and class. They were of higher stage and grade and more frequently HER2-negative. The density of CD123+ pCDs was an independent predictor of pCR in the studied group. DC-LAMP+ mature DCs (mDCs) were also related to characteristics of clinical relevance (i.e., pCR, RCB, and nuclear grade), although no clear trends were identified. We conclude that CD123+ pDCs are candidates for a novel biomarker of BC response to NAC. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dendritic Cell and Cancer Therapy 2.0)
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14 pages, 1795 KiB  
Article
A New Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell-Based Vaccine in Combination with Anti-PD-1 Expands the Tumor-Specific CD8+ T Cells of Lung Cancer Patients
by Dalil Hannani, Estelle Leplus, David Laurin, Benjamin Caulier, Caroline Aspord, Natacha Madelon, Ekaterina Bourova-Flin, Christian Brambilla, Elisabeth Brambilla, Anne-Claire Toffart, Karine Laulagnier, Laurence Chaperot and Joël Plumas
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(3), 1897; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24031897 - 18 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2067
Abstract
The purpose of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-based therapies is to help the patient’s immune system to combat tumors by restoring the immune response mediated by CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. Despite impressive clinical responses, most patients do not respond to ICIs. Therapeutic vaccines with [...] Read more.
The purpose of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-based therapies is to help the patient’s immune system to combat tumors by restoring the immune response mediated by CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. Despite impressive clinical responses, most patients do not respond to ICIs. Therapeutic vaccines with autologous professional antigen-presenting cells, including dendritic cells, do not show yet significant clinical benefit. To improve these approaches, we have developed a new therapeutic vaccine based on an allogeneic plasmacytoid dendritic cell line (PDC*line), which efficiently activates the CD8+ T-cell response in the context of melanoma. The goal of the study is to demonstrate the potential of this platform to activate circulating tumor-specific CD8+ T cells in patients with lung cancer, specifically non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PDC*line cells loaded with peptides derived from tumor antigens are used to stimulate the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of NSCLC patients. Very interestingly, we demonstrate an efficient activation of specific T cells for at least two tumor antigens in 69% of patients irrespective of tumor antigen mRNA overexpression and NSCLC subtype. We also show, for the first time, that the antitumor CD8+ T-cell expansion is considerably improved by clinical-grade anti-PD-1 antibodies. Using PDC*line cells as an antigen presentation platform, we show that circulating antitumor CD8+ T cells from lung cancer patients can be activated, and we demonstrate the synergistic effect of anti-PD-1 on this expansion. These results are encouraging for the development of a PDC*line-based vaccine in NSCLC patients, especially in combination with ICIs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dendritic Cell and Cancer Therapy 2.0)
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Review

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13 pages, 2707 KiB  
Review
Breakthrough in Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm Cancer Therapy Owing to Precision Targeting of CD123
by Serena Zanotta, Domenico Galati, Rosaria De Filippi and Antonio Pinto
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(3), 1454; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25031454 - 25 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1075
Abstract
Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) is a rare and aggressive hematologic cancer originating from the malignant transformation of plasmacytoid dendritic cell precursors. This malignancy progresses rapidly, with frequent relapses and a poor overall survival rate, underscoring the urgent need for effective treatments. [...] Read more.
Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) is a rare and aggressive hematologic cancer originating from the malignant transformation of plasmacytoid dendritic cell precursors. This malignancy progresses rapidly, with frequent relapses and a poor overall survival rate, underscoring the urgent need for effective treatments. However, diagnosing and treating BPDCN have historically been challenging due to its rarity and the lack of standardized approaches. The recognition of BPDCN as a distinct disease entity is recent, and standardized treatment protocols are yet to be established. Traditionally, conventional chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation have been the primary methods for treating BPDCN patients. Advances in immunophenotyping and molecular profiling have identified potential therapeutic targets, leading to a shift toward CD123-targeted immunotherapies in both clinical and research settings. Ongoing developments with SL-401, IMGN632, CD123 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells, and bispecific antibodies (BsAb) show promising advancements. However, the therapeutic effectiveness of CD123-targeting treatments needs improvement through innovative approaches and combinations of treatments with other anti-leukemic drugs. The exploration of combinations such as CD123-targeted immunotherapies with azacitidine and venetoclax is suggested to enhance antineoplastic responses and improve survival rates in BPDCN patients. In conclusion, this multifaceted approach offers hope for more effective and tailored therapeutic interventions against this challenging hematologic malignancy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dendritic Cell and Cancer Therapy 2.0)
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16 pages, 947 KiB  
Review
Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells as a Novel Cell-Based Cancer Immunotherapy
by Sabina Sánchez Hernández, Martin Roelsgaard Jakobsen and Rasmus O. Bak
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(19), 11397; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms231911397 - 27 Sep 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4252
Abstract
Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are multifaceted immune cells with a wide range of innate and adaptive immunological functions. They constitute the first line of defence against multiple viral infections and have also been reported to actively participate in antitumor immune responses. The clinical [...] Read more.
Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are multifaceted immune cells with a wide range of innate and adaptive immunological functions. They constitute the first line of defence against multiple viral infections and have also been reported to actively participate in antitumor immune responses. The clinical implication of the presence of pDCs in the tumor microenvironment (TME) is still ambiguous, but it is clear that pDCs possess the ability to modulate tumor-specific T cell responses and direct cytotoxic functions. Therapeutic strategies designed to exploit these qualities of pDCs to boost tumor-specific immune responses could represent an attractive alternative compared to conventional therapeutic approaches in the future, and promising antitumor effects have already been reported in phase I/II clinical trials. Here, we review the many roles of pDCs in cancer and present current advances in developing pDC-based immunotherapeutic approaches for treating cancer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dendritic Cell and Cancer Therapy 2.0)
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