Fusions of human ovarian carcinoma cells with autologous or allogeneic dendritic cells induce antitumor immunity

Human ovarian carcinomas express the CA-125, HER2/neu, and MUC1 tumor-assoc iated Ags as potential targets for the induction of active specific immunot herapy, In the present studies, human ovarian cancer cells were fused to hu man dendritic cells (DC) as an alternative strategy to induce immunity agai nst known and unidentified tumor Ags, Fusions of ovarian cancer cells to au tologous DC resulted in the formation of heterokaryons that express the CA- 125 Ag and DC-derived costimulatory and adhesion molecules. Similar finding s were obtained with ovarian cancer cells fused to allogeneic DC. The fusio n cells were functional in stimulating the proliferation of autologous T ce lls, The results also demonstrate; that fusions of ovarian cancer cells to autologous or allogeneic DC induce cytolytic T cell activity and lysis of a utologous tumor cells by a MHC class I-restricted mechanism. These findings demonstrate that fusions of ovarian carcinoma cells and DC activate T cell responses against autologous tumor and that the fusions are functional whe n generated with either autologous or allogeneic DC.