The effect of irradiation treated neuroblastoma on differentiation and maturation of human dendritic cells in-vitro

Abstract

The traditional view on the impact of radiotherapy to the immune system is that it induces immunosuppression. As a consequence, it has been used to control autoimmune disorders or to reduce rejection. However, when used in cancer treatment, whether irradiation stimulates or suppresses the immune cells within the cancer microenvironment remains elusive. This study utilized a reductionist approach and tried to dissect the effects of post-irradiated neuroblastoma cells on dendritic cells, which are the most potent antigen presentation cells that modulate the adaptive immunity. I evaluated the effect of soluble factors released by the post-irradiated neuroblastoma on the differentiation and maturation of dendritic cells. While there was no obvious effect of the supernatant of post irradiated neuroblastoma culture medium on the morphology and differentiation of dendritic cells. But it enhanced dendritic cells maturation as suggested by the diminished endocytosis, and also expression of dendritic cells’ surface maturation markers (i.e. CD40, CD80, CD86, and HLA-DR). Since the induction of dendritic cells maturation can be induced by the supernatant of the culture medium from post-irradiated neuroblastoma, whether it is due to the soluble factors, exosomes or even apoptotic particles released by the neuroblastoma cells remains to be explored. It is hoped that my study can stimulate more research interest in this area and more thorough investigation can be done. How we can utilize this information to modulate the immune system actively in the cancer microenvironment can help us to design a new paradigm in cancer treatment.