AUTHOR=Comi Michela , Amodio Giada , Passeri Laura , Fortunato Marta , Santoni de Sio Francesca Romana , Andolfi Grazia , Kajaste-Rudnitski Anna , Russo Fabio , Cesana Luca , Gregori Silvia TITLE=Generation of Powerful Human Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells by Lentiviral-Mediated IL-10 Gene Transfer JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=11 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.01260 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2020.01260 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=

The prominent role of dendritic cells (DC) in promoting tolerance and the development of methods to generate clinical grade products allowed the clinical application of tolerogenic DC (tolDC)-based therapies for controlling unwanted immune responses. We established an efficient method to generate tolerogenic human DC, producing supra-physiological levels of IL-10, by genetically engineering monocyte-derived DC with a bidirectional Lentiviral Vector (bdLV) encoding for IL-10 and a marker gene. DCIL−10 are mature DC, modulate T cell responses, promote T regulatory cells, and are phenotypically and functionally stable upon stimulation. Adoptive transfer of human DCIL−10 in a humanized mouse model dampens allogeneic T cell recall responses, while murine DCIL−10 delays acute graft-vs.-host disease in mice. Our report outlines an efficient method to transduce human myeloid cells with large-size LV and shows that stable over-expression of IL-10 generates an effective cell product for future clinical applications in the contest of allogeneic transplantation.