Employing the immunological synapse in AML: Development of leukemic dendritic cells for active specific immunization

Cytotoxic T cells directed against leukemic blasts have been observed in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, generation of efficient T-cell responses is hampered due to several factors that enable AML blasts to protect themselves from the patients immune system. Improved immune responses can be established by the differentiation of AML blasts into AML-derived dendritic cells (DC) thereby conserving their intrinsic leukemia specific antigens and obtaining full capacity to present these antigens to naïve T cells. This review discusses increased immunogenicity of AML blasts by differentiation into AML-DC and describes ways to augment the AML-DC vaccination approach.