Patent ID: 8728806

Claim:
A method for inducing an immunonologic response in a patient comprising: (a) obtaining monocytic dendritic cell precursors from the patient; (b) culturing the monocytic dendritic cell precursors to induce differentiation into immature dendritic cells; (c) differentiating the immature dendritic cells into mature dendritic cells by (i) transfecting into the immature dendritic cells a nucleic acid composition encoding one or more tumor antigens; and (ii) contacting the immature dendritic cells with a tumor antigen composition, wherein a tumor antigen of the tumor antigen composition comprises an epitope having a sequence that overlaps minimum of 5 amino acids with the sequence of an epitope of a tumor antigen encoded by the nucleic acid composition of step (i) but is not identical thereto; (d) culturing the immature dendritic cells to produce mature dendritic cells; and (e) administering the mature dendritic cells to the patient.