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Replies to post #182323 on NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)
07/12/18 8:02 PM
“One of the fascinating discoveries here is that we’ve long known that natural killer cells — as their name implies — can also kill cancer cells directly,” Krummel said. “But here we are discovering that their power doesn’t lie just in their ability to eliminate threats, but also in their ability to communicate with other immune cells.”
Recent studies have lent support to the notion that, besides their role as potent inducers and controllers of immune responses, DC may also be endowed with a direct tumoricidal function. This less conventional characteristic of DC has however received limited attention and has raised many questions as it relates to the actual ontology of so-called “killer DC”, the acquisition of their cytotoxic activity and the underlying mechanism(s) of tumor cell killing. We here review these aspects, further discuss the influence of DC tumoricidal potential on their APC function and their ability to promote or inhibit anti-cancer immunity. We speculate on the integration of this non-traditional property into the broad concept of cancer immunoediting. Possible options to harness and implement DC tumor killing activity in cancer immunotherapeutic strategies are evaluated.
DC endowed with cytotoxic activity have commonly been referred to as “killer DC” (KDC) although these cells do not constitute a separate, dedicated subset. Rather, multiple heterogeneous subpopulations, naturally occurring in vivo (native) or generated in vitro from specific precursors have been described. A similar degree of diversity and plasticity has been observed as it relates to the modalities of induction of KDC cytotoxic function and to the effector mechanisms underlying tumor cell killing.
Multiple studies have further documented that DC generated in vitro, essentially from bone marrow cells cultured with GM-CSF and IL-4 [me: as is DCVax-L], can exhibit tumoricidal activity, but considerably variable results were obtained in terms of cytotoxic mechanisms.
