Dendritic Cells and Cancer: From Biology to Therapeutic Intervention

Dendritic Cells and Their Role in Cancer Immunotherapy

Dendritic cells (DCs) are antigen presenting cells with unique capability to take up and process antigens in the peripheral blood and tissues. They subsequently migrate to draining lymph nodes where they present these antigens and stimulate naive T lympho-cytes. During their life cycle, DCs go through two maturation stages and are referred to as immature and mature cells, respectively. While im...

Cancer stem cells: therapeutic targets

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified as rare cellular populations in many cancers, including leukemia and solid tumors. This minor subpopulation of cancerous cells is immortal tumor-initiating cells which thought to be responsible for cancer initiation, progression, metastasis, recurrence and drug/radiation resistance. Low proliferative rate, high self-renewing capacity, differentiatio...

Dendritic cells as therapeutic agents against cancer.

Dendritic cells (DC) are antigen-presenting cells whose immunobiology has been proven to be central to the function of the immune system. Further understanding of these cells is leading the way to the manipulation of the immune system as a tool to cure and prevent a vast array of diseases including cancers. These cells have been used in trials as vaccine adjuvants in therapies that aim to break...

Immediate Exposure to TNF-α Activates Dendritic Cells Derived from Non-Purified Cord Blood Mononuclear Cells

Background: Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) is a primary mediator of immune regulation and might be required in the early stages of DC development from CD34+ cells. However, details of optimal timing of exposure to TNF-α in DC development process in monocytes or non-purified hematopoitic cells are still lacking and clear benefits of this approach to the development of DCs remain to be valid...

Dendritic Cells in Atherogenesis: From Immune Shapers to Therapeutic Targets