DC-CIK 细胞作为治疗胶质母细胞瘤潜在有效免疫治疗模型的临床前评估

Despite the favorable effects of immunotherapies in multiple types of cancers, its complete success in CNS malignancies remains challenging. Recently, a successful clinical trial of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell immunotherapy in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) has opened a new avenue for adoptive cellular immunotherapies in CNS malignancies.

Prompt from these findings, herein, we investigated whether dendritic cells (DC) in combination with cytokine-induced killer cells (DC-CIK) could also provide an alternative and more effective way to improve the efficacy of GBM treatment. The analysis showed that DC-CIK cells exerted a significant cytotoxic effect on the glioblastoma cell lines, especially with the phenotype of stem-like cells (GSCs).

In addition, the increased specific lysis of these cells subsequent to DC-CIK co-culture was confirmed with confocal fluorescence microscope. The direct interactions between tumor and effector cells were found to be highly effective in GBM organoids (GBOs).

Moreover, a significant increase in apoptosis and elevated levels of IFN-γ (and not TNF-α) secretion were observed as a targeting mechanism of DC-CIK cells against GBM cell models.

Overall, we provide important preliminary evidence that DC-CIK cells may have potential in the treatment of CNS malignancies, particularly glioblastoma.