Symmetrical response
New Immunotherapy kills cancer cells from the inside
Georgy Golovanov, Hi-tech+
In a fair fight, the immune system would almost always beat cancer. However, cancer does not fight honestly – to win, he uses dirty tricks. One of the machinations of cancer is to force the body's own immune cells to protect the tumor, instead of fighting it. American scientists were able to turn this technique against the disease so that the immune cells began to perform their functions again.
Article by Amoozgar et al. Targeting Treg cells with GITR activation enables resistance to immunotherapy in murine glioblastomas – VM.
Normally, regulatory T cells keep the immune system from attacking the body's own cells, which would lead to autoimmune diseases. But some cancers selectively let these T-suppressors into their microenvironment so that they attack other immune cells that have come to destroy the disease.
Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital have turned this property against cancer. They found a way to reprogram these T-suppressors into T-cells, which not only destroy the tumor from the inside, but also allow other immune cells to take part in the battle.
"Since the T-suppressors already present in these tumors can be reprogrammed, the strategy does not depend on additional involvement of antitumor immune cells – another common barrier to successful brain cancer immunotherapy," said Rakesh Jain, lead researcher, in a press release of Tumor–promoting immune cells retrained to fight most aggressive type of brain cancer.
The scientists tested the therapy on mice with human glioblastoma, a difficult-to-treat form of brain cancer with low survival. They used aGITR antibodies, which reprogrammed the T-suppressors that defected to the enemy into cancer-fighting CD4 T-helpers. They reinforced this tactic with checkpoint inhibitors, which help strengthen the immune system.
As a result, the survival rate among rodents has increased. In some cases, the tumor not only completely disappeared: when scientists later reintroduced cancer cells to these mice, their immune system was ready to fight.
Another team of scientists from the United States has developed an experimental drug that allows you to use the full power of immunity against cancer and simultaneously block regulatory T cells. In some cases of treatment, almost 100% response was observed with a single injection of the drug.
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