Gene-modified dendritic cells by receptor-mediated transfection

Dendritic cells (DC) are professional antigen presenting cells and represent a particular attractive cell type for use in immunotherapy of cancer1–3. In experimental model systems peptide/protein-pulsed or gene-modified DC are currently being used and have been shown to induce strong anti-tumor immune responses4–11. The application of gene-modified DC is especially appealing since over the past several years an even increasing number of tumor cell-specific and/or -associated antigens has been identified and molecular cloned. Furthermore, gene-modified DC offer the opportunity to express, in addition to tumor-specific antigens, e.g., chemokines and cytokines that attract T cells and modulate T cell responses. However, so far efficient gene transfer into primary immunocompetent DC has remained difficult