PRESENTATION OF PROSTATE TUMOR-ANTIGENS BY DENDRITIC CELLS STIMULATEST-CELL PROLIFERATION AND CYTOTOXICITY

Dendritic cells (DCs) are ''professional'' antigen-presenting cells ca pable of stimulating T-cell proliferation and cytotoxicity when loaded with and presenting specific antigens, including tumor antigens. We d emonstrated the stimulation of an autologous cytotoxic T-cell response elicited by DC loaded with autologous tumor cell lysate derived from primary prostate tumor. A candidate tumor antigen is prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), which is overexpressed in prostate cancer pa tients. We identified a HLA-A2 motif in PSMA, isolated patient DC, loa ded peptide into DC, and stimulated autologous T cells to proliferate. The ability to use DC for presentation of either tumor or peptide ant igen in an HLA-restricted fashion in order to stimulate T-cell prolife ration and cytotoxicity demonstrates the potential of this technology for development of a prostate cancer vaccine. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc .