Abstract
In this study, we evaluated antitumor effects of allotumour RNA-transfected dendritic cells (DCs) cocultured with autologous cytokine-induced killer cells (CIKs) on hormone-refractory prostate cancer. The cocultured cells enhanced prostate cancer cytolysis from 26% (CIKs-induced cytolysis) to 80.8%. They also increased the productions of CD4+ Th1 (IFN-γ+IL-4−, 55.52%) and CD8+ T (IFN-γ+, 69.59%) cells determined by intracellular cytokines IFN-γ /IL-4 staining and reduced the rate of CD4+ CD25+ cells from 18.72% (in CIKs) to 9.72%. The cocultured cells significantly inhibited tumor growth in SCID mouse and induced cancer cells necrosis and apoptosis. Our study indicates that tumor RNA-pulsed DCs cocultured with autologous CIKs significantly enhance antitumor immunity, which can be induced by increased CD4+ Th1 and CD8+ T cells and decreased CD4+CD25+ regulatory T (Treg) cells. This provides a potential immunotherapy strategy for HRPC.