"Three-dimensional nanovaccine" will help in the fight against cancer

Kirill Stasevich, "Science and Life"

It is possible to activate the anti-cancer properties of immunity with the help of special nanopalls that can stick together into a three-dimensional structure convenient for immune cells.

The immune system should monitor not only infections, but also cancer cells – if such appear, the immune system destroys them. But malignant cells, in turn, use various tricks to become invisible to our "security systems". Is there any way to help the immune system detect cancer? Intensive research is being conducted in this direction, and the methods proposed by scientists to solve the problem are striking in their diversity. As an example, we can recall the work of a group from the University of Strasbourg (France), published several years ago in Lancet Oncology, in which a modified virus equipped with a cancer protein acted as an immunostimulator. Having "seen" the protein with the help of a virus, the immune system recognized it better on the cancer cells themselves. And at the beginning of the outgoing year, the staff of Johns Hopkins University (USA), in an article in ACS Nano, proposed activating the immune anti-cancer response using magnetic nanoparticles, which worked in much the same way as the aforementioned virus, with the difference that they also helped the immune cell receptors to regroup more effectively.

Researchers from the Weiss Institute at the University of Cambridge (USA) also suggest using nanoparticles, but a very peculiar device (Injectable 3D vaccines could fight cancer and infectious diseases). These are porous silicon oxide nanopods (MSR, mesoporous silica rod), into which some biologically active substances can be loaded (for example, cytokine signaling proteins that control immune cells). Once in the body, such nanopalochki stick together into a three-dimensional structure with many protrusions, corners, cracks, large pores, etc.; stuck together, they release those substances that they carry with them. In an article in Nature Biotechnology (Kim et al., Injectable, spontaneously assembling, organic scaffolds modulate immune cells in vivo and increase vaccine efficiency), the authors write that such spontaneous assembly greatly increased the efficiency of nanoparticles.

The massive and concentrated release of regulatory proteins attracted tens of millions of immune cells. Sitting inside a lump of porous nanopalls, the cell, along with its neighbors, found itself in a special microenvironment, and in such a "house" activation took place very, very effectively. That is, the meaning of a "three-dimensional nanovaccine" is that it provokes a much stronger reaction, compared, for example, with single nanoparticles. (Strictly speaking, this is not really a vaccine, since nanopalochki and signaling molecules act here, but not neutralized, half-dead microbes. However, otherwise there is a similarity: immunity is activated against a specific "violator".)

So far, experiments have been conducted on mice: nanotubes transmitted an anti-cancer signal to dendritic immune cells, after which they were sent to the lymph nodes, where they triggered further stages of the protective response. The tubes themselves were destroyed naturally for several months without any harm to the body. By manipulating the composition of the biologically active "filling", it is possible to create varieties of a vaccine that will adjust immunity against a variety of diseases, not only oncological, but also common infectious. The researchers assure that it is not too difficult to make such sticky porous nanopalls, so perhaps they will soon enter into everyday medical practice.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.12.2014