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Antitumor effects of baculovirus-infected dendritic cells against human pancreatic carcinoma

Gene Therapy volume 21, pages 849–854 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Recently, we showed that baculovirus (BV)-infected dendritic cells (DCs) (BV-DCs) induced antitumor immunity against established tumors in mice. These antitumor effects were CD8+ T-cell and natural killer (NK) cell dependent but CD4+ T-cell independent. In the current study, we examined the antitumor effect of BV-DCs on human pancreatic cancer cells (AsPC-1). After treatment with BV-infected bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs), human pancreatic tumors caused by AsPC-1 cells in a nude mouse model were significantly reduced in size, and the survival of the mice was improved compared with that of non-immature BMDC (iDC)- and BV-DC-immunized mice. We also found that wild-type BV could activate human DCs (HDCs) and that NK cells were activated by BV-infected HDCs (BHDCs). Our findings show that BV-DCs can induce antitumor immunity, which paves the way for the use of this technique as an effective tool for DC immunotherapy against malignancies.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported, in part, by a grant from the Supporting Program for Creating University Ventures from the Japanese Science and Technology Agency; a grant from the Research and Development Program for New Bio-industry Initiatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Fisheries of Japan; and a Grant-in-Aid for High Technology Research (No. 09309011) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Chiba Institute of Technology, 2-17-1 Tsudanuma, Narashino, Chiba, Japan

    A Fujihira, T Suzuki, T Moriyama & H Takaku

  2. High Technology Research Center, Chiba Institute of Technology, 2-17-1 Tsudanuma, Narashino, Chiba, Japan

    M O Chang & H Takaku

  3. Immunology Program, Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, WA, USA

    M Kitajima

  4. Research Institute, Chiba Institute of Technology, 2-17-1 Tsudanuma, Narashino, Chiba, Japan

    H Takaku

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  1. A Fujihira
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Correspondence to H Takaku.

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Fujihira, A., Suzuki, T., Chang, M. et al. Antitumor effects of baculovirus-infected dendritic cells against human pancreatic carcinoma. Gene Ther 21, 849–854 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/gt.2014.59

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