How to incite T-lymphocytes on a tumor?
T-cell receptors reduce the backlog of antibodies in anti-cancer therapy
The work, the results of which are presented in the journal Nature Medicine (Liddy et al., Monoclonal TCR-redirected tumor cell killing), aimed to study the potential of special molecules known as T-cell receptors (TCR) for use in cancer therapy.
T cells attack a cancer cell (illustration INNATE)
Specialists from Immunocore have modified a number of TCR molecules (but not the T cells themselves!) thus, to make them able to bind closely to cancer cells, as well as activate ordinary non-specific T cells. As a result, a completely new class of medicines was obtained, called ImmTAC (immunomobilizing tumor-specific mTCR molecules), which can be used to redirect the destruction of cancer cells of ordinary immune T cells of the patient's body, designed to fight viral infections, without any genetic modification of the T cells themselves.
Simply put, modified mTCR molecules can selectively and tightly bind to cancer cells, labeling them for subsequent destruction by the most common T cells, which potentially should lead to regression of already formed malignant tumors.
The video shows a five-hour in-vitro experiment during which one T-cell specific to the Epstein-Barr virus (herpes virus type IV, which, along with other herpesviruses, is attributed an important role in the formation of tumor cells in the human body), kills three EBV-negative melanoma cells in the presence of the drug ImmTAC, specific to this type of cancer. It can be seen that the labeling of a cancer cell causes a non-specific (to cancer) T-cell, shown in green, to activate and destroy cancer cells marked in red.
Prepared based on the materials of Cardiff University: Fighting cancer.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.05.2012