Construction of HA-1-DC nucleic-acid vaccine and induction of specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes.

An HA-1-DC nucleic-acid vaccine was constructed to induce anti-leukemia effect after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). DCs were generated from HSCT donors in vitro, and its immunologic activity was assayed by using flow cytometry and mixed lymphocytes reaction. HA-1 gene was electroporated into the cultured DCs to construct a DC nucleic-acid vaccine. After transfection for 48 h, the expression of HA-1 protein could be detected by using Western blot. The DCs were cultured with syngenic lymphocytes to induce specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). The cytoxicity of the CTLs was detected by LDH assay. The results showed that The DCs derived from peripheral blood monocytes (PBMCs) expressed the phenotype of DCs, and were effective in stimulating proliferation of the allogenic lymphocytes. After electroporating for 48-h, HA-1 protein was detected by using Western blot. The cytotoxicty of inducing CTLs was higher than the control group. It was suggested that minor histocompatibility antigen HA-1 could be considered as a target of immunotherapy against leukemia after HSCT.