Isolated CDCA1-derived epitope peptides having Th1 cell inducibility are disclosed herein. Such peptides can be recognized by MHC class II molecules and induce Th1 cells. In preferred embodiments, such a peptide of the present invention can promiscuously bind to MHC class II molecules and induce CDCA1-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in addition to Th1 cells. Such peptides are thus suitable for use in enhancing immune response in a subject, and accordingly find use in cancer immunotherapy, in particular, as cancer vaccines. Also disclosed herein are polynucleotides that encode any of the aforementioned peptides, APCs and Th1 cells induced by such peptides and methods of induction associated therewith. Pharmaceutical compositions that comprise any of the aforementioned components as active ingredients find use in the treatment and/or prevention of cancers or tumors.

The invention involves generating a T cell response to subdominant antigens and using the cells to therapeutically change the cellular homeostasis and nature of the immune response. In a preferred embodiment, the cells are generated outside of the patient avoiding the influence of the patient's immunologic milieu. By stimulating and growing the T cells from a patient in a tissue culture to one or more subdominant antigens and the transplanting them into the patient, if enough cells are expanded and transplanted, the transplanted cells overwhelm the endogenous dominant T cells in the response to either break or induce immune tolerance or otherwise modify the immune response to the cells or organism expressing that antigen. When the memory cells are established they are then reflective of this new immunodominance hierarchy so that the desired therapeutic effect is long lasting. In effect, the transplantation exogenously generated T cells reactive to the subdominant antigens is recapitulating priming and rebalancing the patient's immune response to target previously subdominant antigens in the cells or organism to produce a therapeutic benefit.

The present invention relates to a method for generating semi-mature dendritic cells by treating immature dendritic cells with the auto-antigen, cytokine, and PGE2 as a target for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, particularly rheumatoid arthritis, in which the levels of NR4A2 and/or UBASH3B at gene or protein are increased more than 2-fold compared to the immature dendritic cells In addition, the present invention relates to a cell therapeutic agent for treating or preventing autoimmune diseases, containing the semi-mature dendritic cells as an active ingredient. The present invention increases the therapeutic efficacy on rheumatoid arthritis retaining responsiveness to the same auto-antigen that being used for preparing semi-mature dendritic cells, thereby enabling cell therapy.

The invention relates to a centrifuge for separating a sample into at least two components, comprising a chamber for receiving a sample to be centrifuged. According to the invention, the centrifuge further comprises a means for controlling the progress of the sample separation is located at the chamber.

A dendritic cell cancer vaccine obtained by activating dendritic cells in vitro with delivery particles loaded with cell components is provided, wherein the delivery particles are nanoparticles and/or micronparticles, the cell components are derived from water-soluble components and/or non-water-soluble components of cancer cells and/or tumor tissues, the activating is co-incubating the delivery particles loaded with the cell components with the dendritic cells.

Methods of cane r treatment based, on personalized vaccines are disclosed. Individual amino acid substitutions from tumors are revealed using whole genome sequencing, and identified as neoantigens silico. Peptide sequences are then tested in vitro for ability to bind HLA molecules and to be presented to CD8+ T-cells. A vaccine is formed using neoantigen peptides and an adjuvant or dendritic cells (DC) autologous to a subject. In the latter, autologous DC are matured and contacted with the neoantigen peptides. The DC are then administered to the subject. PBMC are then obtained from the subject, and CD8+ T cells specific to the neoantigens are cultured and enriched. Enriched T-cells are then administered to the subject to treat cancer. Treatment resulted in tumor regression in mice bearing human melanomas, and complete or partial responses were observed in human patients.

Methods are disclosed for producing defective ribosomal products (DRiPs) in blebs (DRibbles) by contacting cells with a proteasome inhibitor, and in some examples also an autophagy inducer, thereby producing treated cells. DRibbles can be used to load antigen presenting cells (APCs), thereby allowing the APCs to present the DRiPs and antigenic fragments thereof. Immunogenic compositions that include treated cells, isolated DRibbles, or DRibble-loaded APCs are also disclosed. Methods are also provided for using treated cells, isolated DRibbles, or DRibble-loaded APCs to stimulate an immune response, for example in a subject. For example, DRibbles obtained from a tumor cell can be used to stimulate an immune response against the same type of tumor cells in the subject. In another example, DRibbles obtained from a pathogen-infected cell or cell engineered to express one or more antigens of a pathogen can be used to stimulate an immune response against the pathogen in the subject.

In one aspect, a method of treating cancer in a mammal is provided. The method comprises administering to the mammal an oncolytic vector that expresses a tumor antigen to which the mammal has a pre-existing immunity. In another aspect, a method of boosting immune response in a mammal having a pre-existing immunity to an antigen is provided comprising intravenous administration to the mammal of a B-cell infecting vector that expresses the antigen.

The invention relates to a method for producing tolerogenic dendritic cells (tolDCs) with specific antigens, comprising the steps of: (a) culturing precursors of dendritic cells in an animal-serum-free medium, using cytokines, IL-4 and GM-CSF, in order to differentiate same in dendritic cells; (b) producing apoptotic cells; (c) culturing the dendritic cells obtained in step (b) in the presence of compounds having anti-inflammatory activity; (d) co-culturing the dendritic cells from step (d) with the apoptotic cells from step (c), such as to stimulate the endocytosis of the apoptotic cells by the dendritic cells; (e) and, by means of identification based on phenotypic evaluation, determining the production of tolerogenic dendritic cells (tolDCs) with specific antigens. The invention also relates to the tolDC cells produced with said method and to the use of said tolDCs with specific antigens in the production of a drug suitable for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a dendritic cell, a dendritic cell prepared thereby and a use thereof, and more specifically, to a method for preparing a dendritic cell, including: treating a dendritic cell at a maturation stage rather than at an immature stage with an antigen bound to a peptide having a cell membrane permeability to prepare a dendritic cell with improved antigen-presenting ability, a dendritic cell prepared by the method, and an immunotherapeutic agent thereof, a use for anti-tumor vaccines, or a pharmaceutical composition for treating tumors, containing the same.