BACKGROUND & AIMS: HCV patients who fail conventional interferon-based therapy have
limited treatment options. Dendritic cells are central to the priming and development of
antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell immunity, necessary to elicit effective viral
clearance. The aim of the study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of vaccination with
autologous dendritic cells loaded with HCV-specific cytotoxic T cell epitopes. METHODS:
We examined the potential of autologous monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MoDC) …