Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Jan 1.
Published in final edited form as: Expert Rev Vaccines. 2016 Aug 10;16(1):27–36. doi: 10.1080/14760584.2016.1218762

Figure 1. Dendritic cell vaccine production.

Figure 1

Dendritic cells (DC) vaccines for glioblastoma (GBM) immunotherapy are generated in-vitro using CD14+ monocytes isolated from patient PBMCs. Monocytes are typically differentiated into immature DCs by incubating with GM-CSF and IL-4 for a period of 5–7 days. Alternatively, monocytes can be differentiated in as little as 2 days using novel ‘fastDC protocols. DCs are subsequently matured in a cytokine cocktail for 16 to 20 hours and loaded with tumor antigen. DCs can be loaded with various formats of tumor antigen, including peptides, tumor lysate, DNA, and RNA. Finally, the DCs are injected back into the patient where they travel to vaccine-draining lymph nodes to elicit a tumor-specific immune response. Injection with adjuvants such as the tetanus toxoid can be used to increase DC migration to the lymph nodes and augment vaccine efficacy.