Definition

A preparation of artificial adjuvant vector cells (aAVCs) composed of modified human cells engineered to express the tumor-associated antigen (TAA) New York esophageal squamous cell carcinoma 1 (NY-ESO-1) and loaded with loaded with the cluster of differentiation 1d (CD1d) ligand alpha-galactosylceramide (alpha-GalCer; a-GalCer), with potential immunostimulating and antineoplastic activities. Upon administration of the NY-ESO-1-expressing aAVCs ASP0739, the presentation of α-GalCer by CD1d molecules on the cell surface activates invariant NKT (iNKT) cells, thereby eliciting NY-ESO-1-specific NKT cell responses against ASP0739. This in turn activates a natural killer (NK) cell response against NY-ESO-1-expressing tumor cells. In turn, the NY-ESO-1 released from destroyed ASP0739 is taken up by antigen-presenting cells (APCs), mainly by dendritic cells (DCs), which in turn activates NY-ESO-1-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and results in a CTL-mediated immune response against NY-ESO-1-expressing tumor cells, thereby further destroying NY-ESO-1-expressing tumor cells. In addition, the activation of antigen-specific memory T cells provides long-lasting anti-tumor effects against the NY-ESO-1-expressing tumor cells.