Cancer immunotherapy is the main breakthrough of the year according to Science

Cancer immunotherapy, a therapeutic approach that turns a patient's immune cells into malignant tumor killers, was included in the list of breakthroughs of 2013 according to the American journal Science.

Immunotherapy helps only a part of patients and is currently used in the treatment of only certain types of cancer, including melanoma and leukemia, but experts have very high hopes for this approach.

Research in this area began in the late 1980s, when French scientists identified a receptor on the surface of T-lymphocytes, called CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4). It turned out that this molecule plays an important role in regulating the immune system.

Ten years later, a Texas researcher demonstrated that blocking CTLA-4 on mouse T-lymphocytes can direct the activity of these cells to destroy malignant cells, which leads to a significant reduction in tumors.

New discoveries followed. In the 1990s, a Japanese scientist discovered the molecule PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1, programmed cell death protein 1), expressed by dying T-lifocytes and also demonstrating new capabilities in the fight against cancer.

To date, 5 large pharmaceutical companies are already working on immunotherapeutic drugs. In 2011, a new drug ipilimumab, offered by Bristol Myers-Squibb, was approved.

The use of ipilimumab is very expensive ($ 120,000 per course) and does not guarantee a cure choice. A clinical trial of this drug conducted in 2012 with 300 patients showed a tumor reduction of 50% or more in 31% of patients with melanoma, 29% of patients with kidney cancer and 17% of patients with lung cancer.

This year's summing up of another study showed that 22% of 1,800 patients with melanoma were alive three years after the course of ipilimumab.

Also this year, the results were published, according to which a similar therapeutic approach, known as chimeric antigen receptor technology, consisting in modifying the patient's own T-lymphocytes, provided a complete remission for 45 out of 75 patients.

The journal Science and the American Society of Scientific Achievements, which publishes it, named other key achievements of the outgoing year, which include:

• A new generation of solar cells, the so-called perovskite, the production of which is much cheaper than the production of traditional silicon oxide batteries.
• Progress in growing laboratory versions of miniature human organs, including the brain, kidneys and liver, to facilitate the study of human diseases.
• Stem cells derived from cloned human embryos.
• New data on how sleep provides self-purification of the brain by expanding the interneuronal channels and increasing the flow of cerebrospinal fluid.
• Demonstration of the importance of microorganisms in understanding the state of health of the body as a whole.
• A new method of vaccine development using an antibody structure, met with enthusiasm because of its potential in combating a common childhood disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus.
• The origin of cosmic rays discovered after 100 years of searching. It turned out that they originate in the clouds of debris left by supernovae or exploding stars.

Nature magazine also published its list of the most outstanding scientists of 2013 (only 5 out of 10 people belong to the life sciences there, and Science "ours" has 6 achievements out of 8).

It includes a Russian meteorite hunter Viktor Grokhovsky, whose 30-year experience helped in the study of a massive meteorite that surprised astronomers, which fell in February in the Chelyabinsk region.

The Chinese virologist Hualan Chen (Hualan Chen), who helped suppress the outbreak of the H7N9 avian influenza strain by promptly collecting samples, which resulted in the closure of potentially dangerous poultry markets, was separately noted. She also published a controversial study on hybrids of H1N1 and H5N1 influenza virus strains that can be transmitted from mammal to mammal.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on Medical Xpress materials:
Cancer therapy is 2013 breakthrough: Science journal.

20.12.2013