Induction of antitumor immunity through xenoplacental immunization.

Historically cancer vaccines have yielded suboptimal clinical results. We have developed a novel strategy for eliciting antitumor immunity based upon homology between neoplastic tissue and the developing placenta. Placenta formation shares several key processes with neoplasia, namely: angiogenesis, activation of matrix metalloproteases, and active suppression of immune function.

Immune modulation by silencing IL-12 production in dendritic cells using small interfering RNA.

RNA interference is a mechanism of posttranscriptional gene silencing that functions in most eukaryotic cells, including human and mouse. Specific gene silencing is mediated by short strands of duplex RNA of approximately 21 nt in length (termed small interfering RNA or siRNA) that target the cognate mRNA sequence for degradation. We demonstrate here that RNAi can be used for immune modulation by targeting dendritic cell (DC) gene expression.