Dendritic cells loaded with tumor derived exosomes for cancer immunotherapy

Exosomes are vesicles that can be secreted by many types of cell and released into the extracellular space. Studies have found that tumor derived exosomes (TEXs) can promote tumor growth and metastasis, as well as inhibit immune response through transferring their genetic information to the recipient cells. Given their functions in tumor progression, TEXs are considered as promising biomarkers for early detection of human malignancy. Dendritic cells (DCs), a type of antigen presenting cells, can induce tumor-specific T cell immune responses in carcinogenesis. Growing evidences have demonstrated that the matured DCs induced by TEXs exhibit enhanced anti-tumor effects that may be applied for cancer immunotherapy. Thus in this review, according to the previous studies, we summarized the effects of DCs loaded with TEXs in cancer immunotherapy.