Abstract
Vaccine-based cancer immunotherapy has generated highly variable clinical results due to differing methods of vaccine preparation and variation in patient populations among other lesser factors. Moreover, these clinical responses do not necessarily correspond with the induction of tumor-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes. Here, we review the participation of natural killer (NK) cells as alternative immune components that could cooperate in successful vaccination treatment. NK cells have been described as helper cells in dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines, but the role in other kinds of vaccination strategies (whole cells, peptide, or DNA-based vaccines) is poorly understood. In this article, we address the following issues regarding the role of NK cells in cancer vaccines: NK cell anti-tumor action sites, and the loci of NK cell interaction with other immune cells; descriptions of new data on the memory characteristics of NK cells described in infectious diseases; and finally phenotypical and functional changes after vaccination measured by immunomonitoring in preclinical and clinical settings.
Highlights
Within the lymphocyte gate in the flow cytometric analyzer, natural killer (NK) cells are usually defined as CD3− and CD56+, an isoform of the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) [1]
In a mouse model of metastatic lung cancer, authors found that NK cells prevented pulmonary metastasis and peritoneal dissemination following treatment with cationic liposomes complexes formed by CpG DNA [14]
NK subset depletion resulted in more instances of metastases than observed in perforin-deficient mice, suggesting that the perforin-independent effector functions of NK cells may contribute to protection from tumor metastasis
Summary
Vaccine-based cancer immunotherapy has generated highly variable clinical results due to differing methods of vaccine preparation and variation in patient populations among other lesser factors. These clinical responses do not necessarily correspond with the induction of tumor-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes. We address the following issues regarding the role of NK cells in cancer vaccines: NK cell anti-tumor action sites, and the loci of NK cell interaction with other immune cells; descriptions of new data on the memory characteristics of NK cells described in infectious diseases; and phenotypical and functional changes after vaccination measured by immunomonitoring in preclinical and clinical settings
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