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Advances in Dendritic Cell-Based Immunotherapy of Cancer

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2026 | Viewed by 1395

Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Institute of Pathophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2. Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Celica Biomedical, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: cell biology; cell physiology; neurobiology; membrane properties; cell metabolism; therapeutic biotechnology; preparation of cell-based therapies for the treatment of solid cancers; clinical trials

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Guest Editor
1. Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2. Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Celica Biomedical, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: cellular immunology; immunomodulation; cell and tissue engineering; advanced cell immunotherapies; regenerative medicine

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Dendritic cells (DCs) have been extensively studied since their description in 1973 by Ralph Steinman and Zanvil Cohn. Since then, DCs have been recognized as playing a key role in mediating the innate and inducing the acquired (specific) immune responses. They are the most potent antigen-presenting cells (APCs), capable of activating both naive and memory immune responses. DCs have a superior capacity to acquire and process antigens for presentation to T cells and express high levels of costimulatory or coinhibitory molecules that determine immune activation by initiating a cascade of cellular immune responses, or anergy.

Over the past two decades, DCs have been used in clinical settings against various types of cancer. The use of dendritic cells (DCs) for tumor immunotherapy empowers patients’ own immune effector cells to eliminate tumor cells; however, there are still many important questions to be answered in order to achieve better clinical outcomes with this therapeutic approach, such as the in vitro generation of potent immunostimulatory DCs, their dosage and routes of administration, their body distribution post-application, their frequency and continuity of applications, the inhibition of tumor immunosuppressive regulatory mechanisms, and combinatorial DC-based immunotherapy, e.g., with immune checkpoint inhibitors and certain other types of anticancer drugs.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide insights into some of these important aspects related to the use of DCs in cancer immunotherapy and suggest new approaches that may be key for achieving effective and durable anticancer immune responses with better clinical outcomes in patients.

Dr. Helena Haque Chowdhury
Dr. Matjaz Jeras
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • DC-based immunotherapy of cancer
  • immunostimulatory dendritic cell (DC) generation
  • dosage and routes of DC administration
  • body distribution of DCs post-application
  • frequency and duration of DC applications
  • tumour immunosuppressive mechanisms’ modulation
  • combinatorial DC-based anticancer immunotherapy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

16 pages, 1530 KB  
Review
Structural Determinants and Repair of Membrane Microdomains in Dendritic Cell-Mediated Antitumor Immunity: An Integrative Mechanistic Synthesis
by Ramón Gutiérrez-Sandoval, Francisco Gutiérrez-Castro, Natalia Muñoz-Godoy, Ider Rivadeneira, Andy Lagos, Jordan Iturra, Francisco Krakowiak, Cristián Peña-Vargas, Matías Vidal and Andrés Toledo
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2026, 27(5), 2305; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27052305 - 28 Feb 2026
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Abstract
Durable responses to cancer immunotherapy remain restricted to a subset of patients, highlighting persistent gaps in understanding immune failure mechanisms. Dendritic cells (DCs) serve as the critical bridge between antigen recognition and adaptive immune activation, yet conventional molecular models centered on discrete components [...] Read more.
Durable responses to cancer immunotherapy remain restricted to a subset of patients, highlighting persistent gaps in understanding immune failure mechanisms. Dendritic cells (DCs) serve as the critical bridge between antigen recognition and adaptive immune activation, yet conventional molecular models centered on discrete components fail to fully explain heterogeneous therapeutic outcomes. This integrative mechanistic synthesis proposes that DC-mediated antitumor immunity is governed by higher-order structural determinants, including membrane microdomain organization, spatial compartmentalization of signaling, and temporal integration of antigenic and co-stimulatory cues. These features determine whether antigen presentation leads to effective T-cell priming or dysfunctional states such as exhaustion or anergy within the tumor microenvironment. By reanalyzing our validated 2025 experimental pipeline alongside high-impact contextual literature, we identify emergent properties of immune competence that transcend linear molecular interactions. The resulting framework distinguishes structurally mediated failure modes from classical resistance paradigms, providing a coherent non-reductionist explanation for variability in immunotherapy efficacy. Membrane raft repair is positioned as a key promising structural condition for effective immune integration, with direct relevance to translational and regulatory contexts involving non-pharmacodynamic platforms and New Approach Methodologies (NAM)-aligned evaluation strategies. This work proposes an integrative mechanistic framework to guide future hypothesis-driven studies and clinical advancement of DC-based approaches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Dendritic Cell-Based Immunotherapy of Cancer)
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