Dendritic cell vaccines

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen presenting cells (APCs) central to the induction and regulation of immunity. These specialized immune cells can efficiently acquire antigens in the periphery, process them and present them to cells of the adaptive immune system, inducing antigen-specific immunity. DC-based vaccination therapies against cancer are very promising, since DCs are the most powerful T cell activators. The first part of the following chapter discusses dendritic cell biology pertinent to the design of dendritic cell vaccines (Figure 1), the second part focuses on advances in therapeutic DC cancer vaccination (Figure 2).