Melanoma Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Melanoma, including details on identification, causes, prevention, treatment.

Addition of GM-CSF to a peptide/KLH vaccine results in increased frequencies of CXCR3-expressing KLH-specific T cells.

Na IK, Keilholz U, Letsch A, Bauer S, Asemissen AM, Nagorsen D, Thiel E, Scheibenbogen C

Department of Hematology, Oncology and Transfusion Medicine, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12200 Berlin, Germany.

T-cell trafficking is determined by expression patterns of chemokine receptors. The chemokine receptor CXCR3 is expressed on a subpopulation of type 1 T cells and plays an important role for migration of T cells into inflamed and tumor tissues. Here, we studied the chemokine receptor expression on specific T cells generated against the neoantigen keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) in patients who had been immunized in the context of a tumor peptide vaccination trial with or without the adjuvant granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). In patients immunized in the presence of GM-CSF the fraction of CXCR3(+) KLH-specific T cells was significantly higher than in patients immunized in the absence of GM-CSF (median 45 vs. 20%, P = 0.001). In contrast, the chemokine receptor CCR4, associated with migration to the skin was found in both cohorts on less than 10% of KLH-specific T cells. These results show that CXCR3 expression on vaccine-induced T cells can be modulated by modifying the local vaccine milieu.

Published 29 December 2006 in Cancer Immunol Immunother, 56(3): 391-6.
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