Dendritic Cells (DCs) capture, process, and present antigens to the immune system. Amphera ex vivo extracts and activates cancer patients’ own (monocyte derived) DCs enabling them to present tumour-associated antigens (TAAs) to the immune system. On returning the activated DCs to the patient, they migrate to the lymph nodes, where they induce an immune response,  including NK-cells, B- and T-cells, to attack the tumour.

This ex vivo process is essential because in cancer patients, DC-function is suppressed by tumour-derived soluble factors that inhibit differentiation, maturation and therefore immuno-stimulatory function of DCs. This leads to a defective induction of cytotoxic T-cell responses and ultimately a defective anti-tumour immune response.

The principle behind Amphera’s DC cancer therapy is to generate DCs outside the patient’s body in the absence of the immune suppressing tumour micro-environment, where it is possible to load the DCs with TAAs. Treatment of patients with these activated DCs reinvigorates the immune system to attack the tumour.