Tumor-associated antigens presented by autologous dendritic cells (DC-TAA)

Tumor-associated antigens presented by autologous dendritic cells (DCs) refers to a personalized cancer immunotherapy approach rather than a single molecular entity. In this strategy, a patient's own dendritic cells—the most potent antigen-presenting cells—are extracted via leukapheresis and matured ex vivo (Source: PubMed, PMID: 30634452). These cells are then pulsed or loaded with specific tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), which can be derived from tumor lysates, synthetic peptides, or nucleic acids encoding the antigens (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer, doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.122). Upon re-infusion, these "armed" dendritic cells migrate to the lymph nodes to present the antigens to naive T cells, thereby initiating a targeted and systemic anti-tumor immune response (Source: NIH, National Cancer Institute). This modality is designed to overcome the immune tolerance often found in the tumor microenvironment by providing high-quality antigen presentation and co-stimulation (Source: StatPearls, Dendritic Cell Vaccines). While Sipuleucel-T is a notable FDA-approved example for prostate cancer, many other DC-based therapies are currently in clinical development for various solid tumors (Source: ClinicalTrials.gov).

Other names

Dendritic cell vaccineDC-based immunotherapyAutologous dendritic cell-based vaccineTAA-pulsed dendritic cellsAntigen-loaded dendritic cells

Autologous dendritic cells are loaded with tumor-associated antigens and re-infused into the patient to present these antigens to T cells via MHC molecules, thereby inducing a specific and systemic anti-tumor immune response (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer, 2017).