Over the last decade, major advances in our understanding of the immune system and its mechanisms have led to promising new treatment strategies. In Adoptive Immunotherapy: Methods and Protocols, leading experts describe in detail their optimal techniques for producing and characterizing the immunologically active cells and effector molecules now gaining wide use in the clinical treatment of patients. Taking advantage of the latest technologies, the authors present readily reproducible experimental protocols for the study of dendritic cells, T-cells, monoclonal antibodies, and bone marrow transplantation. The emphasis is on preclinicical and clinical applications and on the progress of selected approaches in clinical trials. Additional chapters cover the molecular definition of target antigens, mathematical modeling approaches to immonotherapy, and the utilization of regulatory T-cells. Theoretical overviews and discussion of future directions for the improvement of adoptive immunotherapy complete the volume. The protocols follow the successful Methods in Molecular Medicine(TM) series format, each offering step-by-step laboratory instructions, an introduction outlining the principle behind the technique, lists of the necessary equipment and reagents, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.
Comprehensive and state-of-the-art, Adoptive Immunotherapy: Methods and Protocols offers an authoritative collection of novel techniques to study the adoptive transfer of tailored antigen-specific immune cells and to improve their clinical application.