Harnessing dendritic cells in cancer.
Dendritic cells (DCs) are central to the initiation of tumor-specific immune responses. However, the tumor microenvironment generates immunosuppressive cells and soluble mediators that compromise DC functions and limit the success of DC-based therapies. Progress in understanding DC metabolism in cancer is uncovering novel therapeutic targets that could restore DC capacity to prime T cells and trigger effective anticancer responses. Accumulating evidence also indicates that conventional chemo- and radiotherapy protocols can cause DC activation, enhance antigen cross-presentation, selectively eliminate immunosuppressive cells and revert the immunosuppression state caused by cancer, suggesting…
Cardiac Glycosides Exert Anticancer Effects by Inducing Immunogenic Cell Death
Some successful chemotherapeutics, notably anthracyclines and oxaliplatin, induce a type of cell stress and death that is immunogenic, hence converting the patient's dying cancer cells into a vaccine that stimulates antitumor immune responses. By means of a fluorescence microscopy platform that allows for the automated detection of the biochemical hallmarks of such a peculiar cell death modality, we identified cardiac glycosides (CGs) as exceptionally efficient inducers of immunogenic cell death, an effect that was associated with the in- hibition of the plasma membrane Na + - and K + -dependent adenosine triphosphatase (Na + /K + -ATPase). CGs ex- acerbated the antineoplastic effects of DN…
Contribution of IL-17-producing {gamma}{delta} T cells to the efficacy of anticancer chemotherapy.
IL-17 production by γδ T cells is required for tumor cell infiltration by IFN-γ–producing CD8+ T cells and inhibition of tumor growth in response to anthracyclines.