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Blood, 1 November 2005, Vol. 106, No. 9, pp. 3082-3089.
Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on July 7, 2005; DOI 10.1182/blood-2005-03-1161.
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IMMUNOBIOLOGY
Discovery of novel immunostimulants by dendritic-cellbased functional screening
Norikatsu Mizumoto,
Jimin Gao,
Hironori Matsushima,
Yasushi Ogawa,
Hiroaki Tanaka, and
Akira Takashima
From the Department of Dermatology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.
Immunostimulants represent an emerging class of drugs for the treatment of infectious disorders and cancer. CpG oligonucleotides and imiquimod, prototypic drugs in this category, are now known to activate dendritic cells (DCs). Here we report the development of a highly sensitive, unbiased functional screen to detect DC-stimulatory signals. Because interleukin-1 (IL-1 ) mRNA expression is closely associated with DC activation, we engineered DCs to stably express a fluorescent marker gene under the control of IL-1 promoter. By screening about 3000 compounds with the resulting DC biosensor clone, we identified DC-stimulatory potentials of topoisomerase I inhibitors (camptothecin derivatives) and microtubule depolymerizing drugs (colchicine and podophyllotoxin). In response to treatment with each agent, bone marrowderived DC preparations exhibited characteristic phenotypic and/or functional changes associated with DC activation. All of these agents also triggered nuclear factor B (NF B) activation in DCs, suggesting a common pharmacologic mechanism of action. Furthermore, locally administered colchicine induced in situ maturation and migration of DCs and augmented both humoral and cellular immune responses. These results support the practical utility of the DC-based biosensor system to discover novel DC-targeted immunostimulants and unveil previously unrecognized (and totally unexpected) pharmacologic activities of several drugs that are commonly used for the treatment of various disorders.

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