Dendritic cells loaded with the lysate of tumor cells infected with Newcastle Disease Virus trigger potent anti-tumor immunity by promoting the secretion of IFN-γ and IL-2 from T cells.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells that are pivotal in the generation and sustainability of antitumor immune responses. Whole tumor cell lysates (TCLs) have been used as sources of tumor antigens for the development of DC vaccines. However, the clinical outcomes of the use of TCL-based DC vaccines have so far been unsatisfactory because of the weak immunogenicity of tumor cells. To improve the efficacy of TCL-based DC vaccines, viruses have been used to enhance the immunity of TCLs and to further enhance the antigen delivery and antigen-presenting ability of DCs. The aim of the present study was to improve the antigen-presenting ability of DCs and to use them to effectively activate T lymphocytes. The present study demonstrated that DCs loaded with the lysate of Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV)-infected tumor cells (NDV-TCL) have increased levels of cluster of differentiation 80 (CD80), CD86, CD83 and human leukocyte antigen-antigen D-associated expression, compared with those loaded with TCL alone. The DCs loaded with the NDV-TCL promoted T-cell proliferation and antitumor cytokine secretion from T cells. These results indicated that loading DCs with NDV-TCL could enhance the antigen-presenting ability of the DCs. On the basis of the results of the present study, we hypothesize that this method of loading DCs with NDV-TCL can be used to develop novel DC vaccines for tumor immunotherapy in the future.