Induction of potent CD8 T cell cytotoxicity by specific targeting of antigen to cross-presenting dendritic cells in vivo via murine or human XCR1

Abstract

Current subunit vaccines are incapable of inducing Ag-specific CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity needed for the defense of certain infections and for therapy of neoplastic diseases. In experimental vaccines, cytotoxic responses can be elicited by targeting of Ag into cross-presenting dendritic cells (DC), but almost all available systems use target molecules also expressed on other cells and thus lack the desired specificity. In the present work, we induced CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity by targeting of Ag to XCR1, a chemokine receptor exclusively expressed on murine and human cross-presenting DC. Targeting of Ag with a mAb or the chemokine ligand XCL1 was highly specific, as determined with XCR1-deficient..