Effects of TLR agonists on maturation and function of 3-day dendritic cells from AML patients in complete remission.

Background: Active dendritic cell (DC) immunization protocols are rapidly gaining interest as therapeutic options in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Here we present for the first time a GMP-compliant 3-day protocol for generation of monocyte-derived DCs using different synthetic Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists in intensively pretreated patients with AML.

Methods: Four different maturation cocktails were compared for their impact on cell recovery, phenotype, cytokine secretion, migration, and lymphocyte activation in 20 AML patients and 25 healthy controls.