Dendritic Cell Immunotherapies: An Opportunity in the Fight against Cancer and Beyond

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Vaccines and Immunotherapy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 27 November 2024 | Viewed by 6474

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry “Scuola Medica Salernitana,” University of Salerno, Baronissi, Italy
Interests: dendritic cell; therapeutic vaccines; lung cancer; COPD; immunogenic cell death; drug resistance; RNA-binding proteins

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Departamento de Biología Molecular, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina
Interests: photodynamic therapy; tumor microenvironment; oncoimmunology

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Biotecnología Ambiental y Salud (INBIAS), CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto (UNRC), Río Cuarto, 5800 Córdoba, Argentina
Interests: dendritic cell vaccination; immunogenic cell death; tumor microenvironment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Dendritic cells (DCs) represent the sentinels of the immune system and play an important role to link innate and adaptive immune responses. They are the most efficient antigen-presenting cells (APCs) of the immune system, executing both conventional presentation and cross-presentation, thereby effectively eliciting CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocyte activity. Although DCs are a rare tumor-infiltrating immune cell population, the central role of these cells in orchestrating tumor-specific immunity and tolerance is well documented and has been recently remarked by the clinical outcome of therapeutic employment of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Moreover, although not well characterized yet, emerging evidence is reported regarding the involvement of DCs in maintaining an inflammation status in respiratory chronic inflammatory diseases as COPD and asthma.

Therefore, given the easy manipulation of DCs in vivo and ex vivo, inducing a pro-inflammatory or tolerogenic/regulatory phenotype, DC-based vaccination can be a safe and beneficial immunotherapeutic approach in cancer, but also in autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases.

In line with these considerations, we would like to encourage the submission to this Special Issue of recent advances in the development of novel DC-based vaccines for the treatment of cancers, autoimmune diseases, and chronic inflammatory diseases. Identification of new signaling pathways and molecular mechanisms relevant in DC maturation, polarization, and activation control (including post-transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms) is welcome. Adding new information on these subjects may lead to a better understanding of the handling of DCs to improve the design and the efficiency of new therapeutic and prophylactic vaccination strategies in different diseases.

Dr. Jessica Dal Col
Prof. Natalia Belén Rumie Vittar
Dr. María Julia Lamberti
Guest Editors

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. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). 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 cell vaccination
  • inflammation
  • antigen-specific response
  • immune checkpoint
  • signaling pathways
  • antigen delivery
  • anticancer immunity
  • autoimmune disease
  • chronic inflammatory disease

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

19 pages, 3741 KiB  
Article
Liposomal Nanovaccine Containing α-Galactosylceramide and Ganglioside GM3 Stimulates Robust CD8+ T Cell Responses via CD169+ Macrophages and cDC1
by Joanna Grabowska, Dorian A. Stolk, Maarten K. Nijen Twilhaar, Martino Ambrosini, Gert Storm, Hans J. van der Vliet, Tanja D. de Gruijl, Yvette van Kooyk and Joke M.M. den Haan
Vaccines 2021, 9(1), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9010056 - 16 Jan 2021
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 5657
Abstract
Successful anti-cancer vaccines aim to prime and reinvigorate cytotoxic T cells and should therefore comprise a potent antigen and adjuvant. Antigen targeting to splenic CD169+ macrophages was shown to induce robust CD8+ T cell responses via antigen transfer to cDC1. Interestingly, [...] Read more.
Successful anti-cancer vaccines aim to prime and reinvigorate cytotoxic T cells and should therefore comprise a potent antigen and adjuvant. Antigen targeting to splenic CD169+ macrophages was shown to induce robust CD8+ T cell responses via antigen transfer to cDC1. Interestingly, CD169+ macrophages can also activate type I natural killer T-cells (NKT). NKT activation via ligands such as α-galactosylceramide (αGC) serve as natural adjuvants through dendritic cell activation. Here, we incorporated ganglioside GM3 and αGC in ovalbumin (OVA) protein-containing liposomes to achieve both CD169+ targeting and superior DC activation. The systemic delivery of GM3-αGC-OVA liposomes resulted in specific uptake by splenic CD169+ macrophages, stimulated strong IFNγ production by NKT and NK cells and coincided with the maturation of cDC1 and significant IL-12 production. Strikingly, superior induction of OVA-specific CD8+ T cells was detected after immunization with GM3-αGC-OVA liposomes. CD8+ T cell activation, but not B cell activation, was dependent on CD169+ macrophages and cDC1, while activation of NKT and NK cells were partially mediated by cDC1. In summary, GM3-αGC antigen-containing liposomes are a potent vaccination platform that promotes the interaction between different immune cell populations, resulting in strong adaptive immunity and therefore emerge as a promising anti-cancer vaccination strategy. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop