Immunity | 活化树突状细胞——肿瘤免疫的“开关”与治疗新靶点

TL;DR - An Immunity study identifies CCR7+ activated dendritic cells (actDCs) as essential for spontaneous and therapy-induced antitumor immunity. New genetic mouse models show that actDCs uniquely prime tumor-specific cytotoxic T cells and sustain responses to checkpoint blockade and adoptive T-cell therapy.

• Both cDC1 and cDC2 converge on the actDC state, marked by CCR7 and elevated costimulatory, antigen-presentation, and regulatory molecules.
• Only activated DCs—not resting DCs that had merely acquired tumor antigen—could prime naive tumor-specific CD8+ T cells.
• actDC1s use cross-presentation, whereas actDC2s can acquire preformed peptide–MHC I complexes from tumor cells through “cross-dressing.”
• Selective actDC depletion reduced tumor-specific and tumor-infiltrating T cells, impaired spontaneous tumor rejection, and weakened immunotherapy efficacy.