Monocyte-derived dendritic cells with silenced PD-1 ligands and transpresenting interleukin-15 stimulate strong tumor-reactive T-cell expansion.

Although allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) can elicit graft-versus-tumor (GVT) immunity, patients often relapse due to residual tumor cells. As essential orchestrators of the immune system, vaccination with dendritic cells (DC) is an appealing strategy to boost the GVT response. Nevertheless, durable clinical responses after DC vaccination are still limited, stressing the need to improve current DC vaccines. Aiming to empower DC potency, we engineered monocyte-derived DCs to deprive them of ligands for the immune checkpoint regulated by programmed death 1 (PD-1). We also equipped them with interleukin (IL)-15 "transpresentation" skills. Transfection with short interfering (si) RNA targeting the PD-1 ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2, in combination with IL15 and IL15R alpha mRNA, preserved their mature DC profile and rendered the DCs superior in inducing T-cell proliferation and IFN gamma and TNF alpha production. Translated into an ex vivo hematological disease setting, DCs deprived of PD-1 ligands (PD-L), equipped with IL15/IL15R alpha expression, or most effectively, both, induced superior expansion of minor histocompatibility antigen-specific CD8(+) T cells from transplanted cancer patients. These data support the combinatorial approach of in situ suppression of the PD-L inhibitory checkpoints with DC-mediated IL15 transpresentation to promote antigenspecific T-cell responses and, ultimately, contribute to GVT immunity. (C)2017 AACR.