ALDHlow-DC vaccine

ALDHlow-DC vaccine is an experimental autologous dendritic cell-based immunotherapy that targets the non-cancer stem cell (non-CSC) population of a tumor. It is prepared by isolating dendritic cells from a patient and pulsing them with antigens—typically in the form of lysates or total RNA—extracted from tumor cells exhibiting low aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity. In the hierarchy of tumor cell populations, ALDH-low cells represent the differentiated bulk of the tumor rather than the self-renewing, chemoresistant stem cell niche. This vaccine is primarily utilized in clinical research as a comparative control to evaluate the efficacy of ALDHhigh-DC vaccines, which specifically target cancer stem cells (CSCs). Preclinical and clinical studies in malignancies such as head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma have used this vaccine to demonstrate that while it can induce an immune response against the bulk tumor, it is often less effective at preventing recurrence compared to CSC-targeted approaches.

Other names

ALDH-low dendritic cell vaccineALDH(low) DC vaccinenon-CSC-targeted DC vaccine