Replies to post #675532 on NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[Chiugray]

Hankmanhub, Not a doctor, but sharing my 2 cents and thinking that using another person's lysate in DCVax is a plausible theory.

Question
- theoretical brain tumor patient
- Patient A does a leukapheresis to culture immature dendritic cells
- But uses Patient B's lysate of resected brain tumor as material to educate A's DCs (pick up brain tumor antigens)
- Because A's DCs pick antigens ("not-self"), they will pick up both B's tumor antigens and normal cells that are deemed to be "not self" to A.
Would that create a cytotoxic response for A?

Answer (not sure, just my general thinking)
Because we are still dealing with DCVax dendritic cells, I believe A's immune system has a check-and-balance feature that prevents this risk of toxicity from taking place. This is different than if we were injecting into A's body a cytotoxic T cell (like other drugs, ie by-pass the body's immune system).

After injection of A's DCs, it has to now find a uniquely matching T cell:

T cell circulating in blood: These T cells are already activated, meaning they have already passed through the thymus and deemed to not be "self" reactive. They will pick up only the relevant antigens from the DC, but none that would be considered "self". Not toxic.

T cells in the lymph node: These T cells are immature and not yet activated. Each antigen presented will find a matching unique T cell. However they will all have to migrate to the thymus. There it will be screened, and any T cell that reacts to "self" will be destroyed. Not toxic.

A similar process would apply to informing B cells, just through the spleen instead.