Regulation of Tumor Immunity by Tumor/Dendritic Cell Fusions

The goal of cancer vaccines is to induce antitumor immunity that ultimately will reduce tumor burden in tumor environment. Several strategies involving dendritic cells- (DCs)- based vaccine incorporating different tumor-associated antigens to induce antitumor immune responses against tumors have been tested in clinical trials worldwide. Although DCs-based vaccine such as fusions of whole tumor cells and DCs has been proven to be clinically safe and is efficient to enhance antitumor immune responses for inducing effective immune response and for breaking T-cell tolerance to tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), only a limited success has occurred in clinical trials. This paper reviews tumor immune escape and current strategies employed in the field of tumor/DC fusions vaccine aimed at enhancing activation of TAAs-specific cytotoxic T cells in tumor microenvironment.Foundation for the Promotion of Cancer Research; Mitsui Life Social Welfare Foundation; Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Cultures, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan; Grant-in-Aid of the Japan Medical Association; Takeda Science Foundation; Pancreas Research Foundation of Japa

<Regular Article>Identification of Lactaldehyde Reductase and Aldehyde Reductase as Functions of the Same Enzyme Protein in Pig Kidney

Lactaldehyde reductase activity of pig kidney extract was potently inhibited by aldehyde reductase inhibitors such as barbital and diphenic acid. The lactaldehyde reductase and aldehyde reductase activities from this tissue were co-purified to apparent homogeneity, and co-migrated on isoelectric focusing and Sephadex G-100 filtration. These two enzymatic activities in the crude extract were almost completely immunoprecipitated by an antibody against the purified reductase. The results indicate that lactaldehyde reductase in pig kidney is identical to aldehyde reductase