Vaccines targeting helper T cells for cancer immunotherapy.

Vaccines targeting helper T cells for cancer immunotherapy. Curr Opin Immunol. 2017 Jul 26;47:85-92 Authors: Melssen M, Slingluff CL Abstract There are compelling arguments for designing cancer vaccines specifically to induce CD4(+) helper T cell responses. Recent studies highlight the crucial role of proliferating, activated effector memory Th1 CD4(+) T cells in effective antitumor immunity and reveal that CD4(+) T cells induce more durable immune-mediated tumor control than CD8(+) T cells. CD4(+) T cells promote antitumor immunity by numerous mechanisms including enhancing antigen presentation, co-stimulation, T cell homing, T cell activation, and effector function. These effects are mediated at sites of T cell priming and at the tumor microenvironment. Several cancer vaccine approaches induce durable CD4(+) T cell responses and have promising clinical activity. Future work should further optimize vaccine adjuvants and combination therapies incorporating helper peptide vaccines. PMID: 28755541 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Current Opinion in Immunology - Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Tags: Curr Opin Immunol Source Type: research