Methods and compositions for obtaining mature dendritic cells

Patent Number: 7,198,948

Dendritic cells are the most potent antigen presenting cell of the immune system. Essentially, they "tell" T cells what to attack and what not to attack. The first inventor of the current patent, Ralph Steinman is considered the discoverer of the dendritic cells. The patent covers a method of making dendritic cells from stem cells. According to the claims, the method involves culturing the stem cell in combination of GM-CSF and IL-4 or IL-13 for a time sufficient to produce immature dendritic cells, and b) adding a composition selected from the group consisting of peripheral blood mononuclear cell conditioned medium, monocyte conditioned medium and fixed Staphylococcus aureus Cowan 1 strain (SACS) for a time sufficient for the immature dendritic cells to produce stable mature dendritic cells that express a characteristic of mature dendritic cells, The first part, using IL-4 and GM-CSF to make immature DC is well known and performed by almost everyone in the field. The second part, induction of their maturation essentially just requires activation of TLRs. Here the inventors limited themselves to "conditioned media" and fixed bacteria. However there are many other ways of generating mature dendritic cells and getting around this patent.

View this patent on the USPTO website.