Dendritic cell therapy for cancer and underlying mechanism involved in cancer development

Abstract

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most potent antigenpresenting cells to prime nӓive T cell for proper immune responses. The uncontrolled growth of cancer cells results from their succesful invasion of the regulation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes. In addition to the most common types of cancer treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, immunotherapy has been considered a promising treatment. Currently, DC therapy is one of the most popular immunotherapies by using tumor antigenpulsed DC vaccines against cancers. Patients with end-stage cancer treated with DC therapy may extend survival from 10 to 15 years. Researchers in the world, including Vietnam, have been focusing on determining the etiology of cancer with aim to control it. One of the major causes of cancer is the increased expression of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) affecting recruitment of a large number of regulatory T cells as well as abolishing the presence of cytotoxic T lymphocytes migrating to the tumor sites, resulting in an immune tolerance. In addition, the abnormal activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is also an important risk factor for cancer, because its activation leads to the transcription of nuclear genes involved in regulating the cell physiological processes. This NF-κB signaling is modulated by bindings between most receptors on immune cell surfaces and a specific ligands. Therefore, investigations of the precise molecular mechanism associated with the regulation of cancer development by DCs and other leukocytes and the efficiency in cancer therapy both have been major challenges for scientists worldwide.