Telomerase pulsed dendritic cells could aid renal cell carcinoma immunotherapy

Although renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is immunologically susceptible, it lacks specific tumor antigens for the induction of specific immunotherapy. German researchers report promising results using telomerase peptide as a tumor-associated antigen for RCC immunotherapy.

In the January issue of the Journal of Urology, Dr. Elisabeth Sievers from the University of Bonn and colleagues note that they generated dendritic cells (DCs) and immunologic effector cells –cytokine induced killer (CIK) cells– from patients with RCC and from healthy donors. They co-cultured some of these CIK cells with telomerase peptide pulsed DCs.Co-culturing of CIK cells from healthy donors with telomerase pulsed DCs induced a significant dose-dependent increase in cytotoxic activity against an RCC tumor cell line compared with cells that were not co-cultured. Furthermore, expansion of antigen specific T cells was observed in CIK cells grown in telomerase pulsed DCs and “a high number of antigen specific T cells corresponded with cytotoxic activity,” the team reports.”Encouragingly,” they were able to reproduce these findings using a complete autologous model with immunological cells derived from patients with metastatic RCC directed against autologous telomerase positive primary cell cultures. The investigators conclude that telomerase “could serve as a specific tumor associated antigen for RCC.” However, they also stress that “It remains unclear how in vitro cytotoxicity data could be interpolated to the clinical situation.”(Source: J Urol 2004;171:114-119: Reuters Health: January 16, 2004: Oncolink)