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Tumor vaccine assembly, in situ | ||||||||
Enter researchers at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. They recently reported the creation of an artificial trap that captures and customizes DCs right under the skin (Nat. Biotechnol. 2002, 20, 64–69). This new process shortens the time span of the process from 10 days to just 24 hours. DCs are specialized white blood cells that signal T lymphocytes to multiply and initiate an immune response. The epidermis contains immature DCs known as Langerhans cells, which mature and migrate to draining lymph nodes upon interaction with a hapten molecule. Chemokines attract the migrating cells and help mediate the process. The researchers created a trap for Langerhans cells beneath the epidermis in mice by implanting an ethylene–vinyl acetate polymer rod incorporated with a chemokine known as MIP-3 In a second experiment, a polymer rod releasing tumor-associated antigens was implanted along with the chemokine-containing rod. “We thought these Langerhans cells would carry the tumor-associated antigen to the draining lymph nodes and initiate protective immunity against tumor development,” said Akira Takashima, professor of dermatology at UT Southwestern and coauthor of the study, in a statement released by UT Southwestern. Experiments with several tumor models in mice demonstrated that this strategy was effective, in many cases almost completely preventing the development of inoculated tumors. By creating an in vivo process, this method could bring antitumor vaccines one step closer to reality. |
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and tumor-associated antigen) vaccine system (red curve), compared with control implantations and no implantation (remaining curves). (Adapted from Nat. Biotechnol. 2002, 20, 64–69.)