Dendritic Cells As Shepherds of T Cell Immunity in Cancer

Authors

Mikael J Pittet
Mauro Di Pilato
Christopher Garris
Thorsten R Mempel

Publication Date

10-10-2023

Journal

Immunity

Abstract

In cancer patients, dendritic cells (DCs) in tumor-draining lymph nodes can present antigens to naive T cells in ways that break immunological tolerance. The clonally expanded progeny of primed T cells are further regulated by DCs at tumor sites. Intratumoral DCs can both provide survival signals to and drive effector differentiation of incoming T cells, thereby locally enhancing antitumor immunity; however, the paucity of intratumoral DCs or their expression of immunoregulatory molecules often limits antitumor T cell responses. Here, we review the current understanding of DC-T cell interactions at both priming and effector sites of immune responses. We place emerging insights into DC functions in tumor immunity in the context of DC development, ontogeny, and functions in other settings and propose that DCs control at least two T cell-associated checkpoints of the cancer immunity cycle. Our understanding of both checkpoints has implications for the development of new approaches to cancer immunotherapy.

Keywords

Animals, Humans, Cell Communication, Cell Differentiation, Dendritic Cells, Immune Tolerance, Immunotherapy, Neoplasms, T-Lymphocytes

DOI

10.1016/j.immuni.2023.08.014

PMID

37708889

PMCID

PMC10591862

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

10-10-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Published Open-Access

yes