Immunotherapy is one of the relatively effective methods in today’s cancer treatment, but it usually takes a lot of time and is often too late for patients with urgent conditions. Therefore, a team from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine recently disclosed the research results and adopted A new, more efficient way.
Immunotherapy is a disease treatment method that induces, enhances or inhibits immune responses. In cancer treatment, it can be divided into autologous immune cell therapies (activation immunotherapies).)and CAR-T immunotherapy (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell) two modes.
Autologous immune cell therapy involves drawing blood from the patient, cultivating and activating immune cells, such as natural killer cells, dendritic cells, etc. outside the body, and then injecting them back to kill cancer cells.
CAR-T is to isolate immune T cells after extracting the patient’s blood. Using genetic modification technology, the T cells are chimeric with antigen receptors that can recognize and kill cancer cells. They are then stimulated, cultured and expanded, and then transformed. The T cells are injected back into the patient.
However, both methods currently require several weeks or even months of treatment, and are extremely expensive, putting great pressure on patients with urgent conditions or poor financial conditions.
Therefore, the research goal of the medical team at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is to find a way to mass-produce immunotherapy like ordinary drugs and make it readily available in medical institutions.
The team targeted Gamma Delta T cells (γδ T cells) in the human body)this kind of T cells are mainly distributed in the intestinal mucosa, skin or other mucosal tissues, and are also one of the ways that immunotherapy can be used in past experiments. The biggest advantage is that the use of γδ T cells is not restricted. The patient’s own cells can be obtained from a donor just like blood donation, so they have become the research target of the research team.
In order to effectively identify γδ T cells suitable for patients from cells from different donors, the team developed a surface protein called CD16 as a calibration substance, and then cultured chimeric antigen receptors (Chimera Antigen Receptor) from suitable γδ T cells. , CAR) cells and interleukin-15 (IL-15) protein are injected back into the patient’s body to kill cancer cells.
In the human cell experiment, the team used ovarian cancer cells for testing and mice for in vivo experiments. In addition to the success of the human cell experiment, all five mice using the new therapy containing CAR and IL-15 γδ T cells recovered within 180 days. , compared to the control group that did not use this method, five mice died in 90 days.
The research team pointed out that this experimental result brings many possibilities for new treatments. In the future, new immunotherapies will be faster and more affordable, bringing major breakthroughs in cancer treatment.
The research results have been published in the journal Nature-Communication.
(First image source: The National Institutes of Health, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
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