Personalized Dendritic-cell-based Vaccines Targeting Cancer Neoantigens.

Cancer immunotherapy activates the host immune system against tumor cells and has the potential to lead to the development of innovative strategies for cancer treatment. Neoantigens are non-self-antigens produced by genetic mutations in tumor cells that induce a strong immune response against tumor cells without central immune tolerance. Along with advances in neoantigen analysis technology, the development of vaccines focusing on neoantigens is being accelerated. Whereas there are various platforms for neoantigen vaccines, combined immuno-therapies are being developed simultaneously with the clinical application of synthetic long peptides and mRNA and dendritic-cell (DC)-based vaccines. Personalized DC-based vaccines not only can load various antigens including neoantigens, but also have the potential to elicit a strong immune response in T cells as antigen-presenting cells. In this review, we describe the properties of neoantigens and the basic characteristics of DCs. We also discuss the clinical applications of neoantigen vaccines, focusing on personalized DC-based vaccines, as well as future research and development directions and challenges.