A new immunotherapy study from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities shows how engineered immune cells used in new cancer therapies can overcome physical barriers to boost a patient’s own immune system in fighting tumors. The study was published on May 14 in Nature Communications, a peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal published by Nature Research. The study, which was led by engineering and medical researchers, used specially-engineered T-cells to design them to be more “fit” to be able to move through and into tumors to locate and destroy cancer cells.
Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps the patient’s immune system fight cancer, rather than using chemotherapy or radiation. T-cells are a type of white blood cell that are of key importance to the immune system. Cytotoxic T-cells are like soldiers who search out and destroy the targeted invader cells. The fibrous mass of a tumor makes it thicker and more difficult for the T-cells to locate the cancer cells.
“’This study is our first publication where we have identified some structural and signaling elements where we can tune these T-cells to make them more effective cancer fighters,’” said Provenzano, a researcher in the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center. “’Every ‘obstacle course’ within a tumor is slightly different, but there are some similarities. After engineering these immune cells, we found that they moved through the tumor almost twice as fast no matter what obstacles were in their way.’”
MedicalExpress.com goes on to explain, “To engineer cytotoxic T cells, the authors used advanced gene editing technologies (also called genome editing) to change the DNA of the T cells so they are better able to overcome the tumor’s barriers. The ultimate goal is to slow down the cancer cells and speed up the engineered immune cells. The researchers are working to create cells that are good at overcoming different kinds of barriers. When these cells are mixed together, the goal is for groups of immune cells to overcome all the different types of barriers to reach the cancer cells.”
This ground-breaking research could pave the way for improvement in therapies against all types of cancer, affecting the lives of millions worldwide. It could also provide fruitful leads for other areas of research on the immune system. (MedicalExpress.com) For more info on some basics: [https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/organ-systems/the-immune-system/v/how-white-blood-cells-move-around]
