{"entity":{"id":"dendritic-cell-cross-presentation","kind":"term","name":"Dendritic-cell cross-presentation (cDC1)","aka":["cross-presentation","cross-priming","cDC1","type 1 conventional dendritic cells","conventional type 1 dendritic cells","CD141+ dendritic cells","BDCA-3+ dendritic cells","CD8alpha+ dendritic cells","CD103+ dendritic cells","Batf3-dependent dendritic cells"],"tldr":"Killer T cells can only attack a cancer once they have been shown pieces of it. A rare kind of immune cell, the type 1 dendritic cell, picks up debris from dead tumour cells and displays it in the special way killer T cells recognise. Without these cells, checkpoint drugs and many cancer vaccines work poorly in animal studies.","summary":"Most cells display on MHC class I only peptides from proteins they make themselves, so a CD8 T cell is normally primed by an infected or transformed cell's own antigen. Cross-presentation is the route by which certain dendritic cells take up exogenous antigen (from dead cells or debris), move it from the phagosome into the cytosolic processing pathway and load it onto MHC class I, priming CD8 T cells against antigens they did not synthesise. The subset specialised for this is the type 1 conventional dendritic cell (cDC1): CD8alpha+ and CD103+ in mice, CD141 (BDCA-3)+ in humans, dependent on FLT3 ligand and the transcription factor BATF3 for development, internalising necrotic-cell material through CLEC9A (DNGR-1), a receptor for polymerised actin, and expressing the chemokine receptor XCR1, which favours contact with CD8 T cells (Alfaro et al., 2013).\n\nThe in vivo proof came from Batf3-deficient mice (Hildner et al., Science 2008): they lacked CD8alpha+ dendritic cells, their dendritic cells were defective in cross-presentation, and they failed to reject highly immunogenic syngeneic tumours. In mouse melanoma, CD103+ dendritic cells were the only antigen-presenting cells carrying intact antigen to lymph nodes and priming tumour-specific CD8 T cells, and they were required for PD-L1 blockade to work; expanding them with FLT3 ligand and activating them with intratumoral poly I:C improved responses to PD-L1 and BRAF inhibition (Salmon et al., Immunity 2016). This is why a scarcity of cDC1 in a tumour is read as one cause of a cold, checkpoint-resistant tumour, and why vaccine designs target antigen to cDC1 receptors such as CLEC9A, or expand and activate these cells, rather than relying on bulk monocyte-derived dendritic cells.","asOf":"2026-11-03","links":[{"label":"Hildner et al., Batf3 deficiency reveals a critical role for CD8alpha+ dendritic cells in cytotoxic T cell immunity, Science 2008 (PMID 19008445)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1164206"},{"label":"Salmon et al., Expansion and activation of CD103+ dendritic cell progenitors at the tumor site enhances tumor responses to therapeutic PD-L1 and BRAF inhibition, Immunity 2016 (PMID 27096321)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2016.03.012"},{"label":"Alfaro et al., Specialized dendritic cells in cross-presentation of exogenous antigens to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (review in Spanish, English abstract), An Sist Sanit Navar 2013 (PMID 24406364)","url":"https://doi.org/10.4321/s1137-66272013000300016"}],"tags":[],"related":["antigen-presentation-immunoediting","cgas-sting"],"cancers":[],"sections":["immunotherapy"],"technologies":["dendritic-cell-vaccines","checkpoint-inhibitor"],"targets":["cd141","flt3","cd8","pdl1"],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["neoantigen","immunogenic-cell-death","cold-vs-hot","immune-checkpoint"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["The marker and mechanism list (CD141, FLT3 ligand, BATF3, CLEC9A as an F-actin receptor, XCR1) rests on the English abstract of Alfaro et al. 2013; the Hildner and Salmon findings rest on their abstracts. All three DOIs were resolved through Crossref and PubMed on 3 November 2026.","The checkpoint evidence cited is from mouse models; no human trial result is claimed here.","OnCo has no target records for XCR1, CLEC9A or BATF3 yet, so they are named in the text but not linked."],"category":"Immunology"},"route":"/terms/dendritic-cell-cross-presentation/","neighbours":{"pathway":[{"id":"antigen-presentation-immunoediting","kind":"pathway","name":"Antigen presentation & immune editing","route":"/pathways/antigen-presentation-immunoediting/"},{"id":"cgas-sting","kind":"pathway","name":"cGAS-STING innate sensing","route":"/pathways/cgas-sting/"}],"section":[{"id":"immunotherapy","kind":"section","name":"Immunotherapy","route":"/fronts/immunotherapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"dendritic-cell-vaccines","kind":"technology","name":"Dendritic cell vaccines","route":"/technologies/dendritic-cell-vaccines/"},{"id":"checkpoint-inhibitor","kind":"technology","name":"Immune checkpoint inhibitors","route":"/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/"}],"target":[{"id":"cd141","kind":"target","name":"CD141","route":"/targets/cd141/"},{"id":"cd8","kind":"target","name":"CD8","route":"/targets/cd8/"},{"id":"flt3","kind":"target","name":"FLT3","route":"/targets/flt3/"},{"id":"pdl1","kind":"target","name":"PD-L1","route":"/targets/pdl1/"}],"term":[{"id":"cold-vs-hot","kind":"term","name":"Hot vs cold tumours","route":"/terms/cold-vs-hot/"},{"id":"immune-checkpoint","kind":"term","name":"Immune checkpoint","route":"/terms/immune-checkpoint/"},{"id":"immunogenic-cell-death","kind":"term","name":"Immunogenic cell death","route":"/terms/immunogenic-cell-death/"},{"id":"neoantigen","kind":"term","name":"Neoantigen","route":"/terms/neoantigen/"}]}}