REVERSE TRANSLATIONAL DESIGNING OF THE NEXT-GENERATION ANTICANCER DC VACCINATIONS: Mechanisms and beyond

Type I interferon (IFN) response, is a potent pro-immunogenic as well as anti-pathogenic process in vertebrates. Both “non-self” and particular “self” nucleic acid-moieties can elicit Type I IFNs. Hence, Type I IFNs have important roles to play in various pathogenic as well as sterile inflammatory pathologies like cancer. A clinically relevant tumor exhibits a relative dysfunction in mounting Type I IFN response. Owing to this, cancer immunotherapy regimens contingent on Type I IFN response are currently being prioritized for the clinic. Interestingly, recent studies have exemplified that cell death can induce Type I IFNs. This has important implications for cancer, since cell death induction is an integral part of conventional cancer treatments. Thus, the current project seeks to explore the cell death-Type I IFN link by using state-of-the-art cellular genetic models, cancer immunotherapy or cell death modalities and immune activity reporter systems culminating into in vivo therapeutic testing in mice and complemented by patient biomarker analyses.