Dendritic Cells and Immunogenic Cancer Cell Death: A Combination for Improving Antitumor Immunity

LAMBERTI, MARÍA JULIA; NIGRO, ANNUNZIATA; MENTUCCI, FÁTIMA MARÍA; RUMIE VITTAR, NATALIA BELÉN; CASOLARO, VINCENZO; DAL COL, JESSICA

Pharmaceutics

MDPI Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

Año: 2020 vol. 12

Abstract: The safety and feasibility of dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapies in cancermanagement have been well documented after more than twenty-five years of experimentation, and,by now, undeniably accepted. On the other hand, it is equally evident that DC-based vaccinationas monotherapy did not achieve the clinical benefits that were predicted in a number of promisingpreclinical studies. The current availability of several immune modulatory and targeting approachesopens the way to many potential therapeutic combinations. In particular, the evidence that theimmune-related eects that are elicited by immunogenic cell death (ICD)-inducing therapies are strictlyassociated with DC engagement and activation strongly support the combination of ICD-inducingand DC-based immunotherapies. In this review, we examine the data in recent studies employingtumor cells, killed through ICD induction, in the formulation of anticancer DC-based vaccines. Inaddition, we discuss the opportunity to combine pharmacologic or physical therapeutic approachesthat can promote ICD in vivo with in situ DC vaccination.