We have reported previously that murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (DC) pulsed with whole tumor lysates can mediate potent antitumor immune responses both in vitro and in vivo. Because successful therapy was dependent on host immune T cells, we have now evaluated whether the systemic administration of the T cell stimulatory/growth promoting cytokine interleukin-2 (IL-2) could enhance t...

A high-frequency-transducing (HFT) lysate for tetracycline resistance (Lets) was obtained by inducing an unusual tets P22 lysogen which had been made by transducing Salmonella typhimurium LT.2 to letR with P22 phage grown on an LT-2 strain carrying the R factor 222. The HFT lysate contains defective P22 particles, called P22 Tc-10, which cannot grow or lysogenize (i.e., transduce tetn) upon sin...

OBJECTIVES Single-agent immunotherapy is ineffective against poorly immunogenic cancers, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The aims of this study were to demonstrate the feasibility of production of novel autologous tumor lysate vaccines from resected PDAC tumors, and verify vaccine safety and efficacy. METHODS Fresh surgically resected tumors obtained from human patients wer...

Human osteosarcoma cell line SaOS-2 is an osteoblastic cell model that contains factors like bone morphogenetic proteins necessary for initiating bone formation. The cell line also expresses high levels of osteoinductive activity. In contrast to highly complicated and expensive ways to identify, purify, and separate specific bone-inducing agents from SaOS-2 cells, lysate can be used as an alter...

β-Hexosaminidase, which is generally present in the lysosome, is essential for glycoprotein metabolism in the maintenance of cell homeostasis. In mast cells (MCs), large amounts of β-hexosaminidase are present in the granules as opposed to the lysosome, and the biological role of MC β-hexosaminidase has yet to be fully elucidated. Therefore, we investigated the biological role of β-hexosaminida...

BACKGROUND Protective host responses to respiratory pathogens are typically characterized by inflammation. However, lung inflammation is not always protective and it may even become deleterious to the host. We have recently reported substantial protection against Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcal) pneumonia by induction of a robust inflammatory innate immune response to an inhaled bacteria...

Apoptosis is an active form of cell death that can be induced by a wide variety of agents and conditions. In response to actinomycin D, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), or TNF-alpha, Jurkat T cells underwent typical apoptosis. Phospholipase D (PLD) activity in intact cells determined by phosphatidylbutanol generation was up-regulated by these agents. The PLD activation was in a time-dependent manner d...

Tumor antigens are the primary target of therapeutic cancer vaccines. We set out to define and compare the expression pattern of tumor antigen genes in esophagus carcinoma biopsies and in an allogeneic tumor lysate-based cancer vaccine, MelCancerVac®. Cells used for vaccine production were treated with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-aza-CdR) to determine whether t...

The efficient Ag presenting and immunostimulatory capacity of dendritic cells (DCs) has led to the use of tumor Ag-pulsed DCs in treatment regimens for cancer. Although vaccine studies involving tumor lysate-pulsed DCs have been performed, little, if any, information is available on the effects of phagocytic uptake of tumor lysate on DC biology and function. We have investigated gene expression...

PROBLEM Dendritic cell (DC)-based cancer therapies are favored approaches to stimulate anti-tumor T-cell responses. Unfortunately, tolerance to tumor antigens is difficult to overcome. Biodegradable poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles (NP) are effective reagents in the delivery of drugs and tumor-associated antigens (TAA). In this study, we assessed the capacity of a PLGA NP-base...