Induction of antitumor immune responses with recombinant lentivector: Role of skin derived DCs

T cell immune responses play a critical role in preventing and treating malignant tumors. The most effective way for stimulating potent T cell immunity is by genetic immunization with recombinant viral vectors. Recombinant lentivector has recently been studied as antigen delivery vehicle for stimulating potent T cell responses. Studies showed that lentivector immunization can induce remarkably potent and durable CD8 T cell responses possibly because of their high efficiency of transducing dendritic cells (DCs) and persistent antigen presentation. In this brief review, we summarized the recent findings on the basic mechanistic studies, especially on the role of DC subsets in lentivector immunization, and the potential applications of using lentivector immunization for tumor immunotherapy in preclinical animal models.