Bait for metastases
A new method of immunotherapy effectively combats metastases in the lungs
Georgy Golovanov, Hi-tech+
Cancer has a potentially fatal property of spreading through the body, and most often metastatic tumors appear in the lungs. American scientists have developed a method of treating such secondary foci, using drugs that provoke an immune reaction as bait.
Article by Zhao et al. Systematic tumour suppression via the preferential accumulation of erythrocyte-anchored chemokine-encapsulating nanoparticles in lung metastases is published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering – VM.
After a malignant tumor appears in the body, it often begins to metastasize. Cancer cells separate from it and circulate in the blood until they find a new home, where a new tumor appears. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for patients to find out after a surgical operation to remove a tumor that it has metastasized in another organ.
Previous studies have shown that the lungs are one of the most common sites of secondary tumors. The reason is that there are a lot of tiny blood vessels through which cancer cells enter the organ. The situation is further complicated by the fact that traditional chemotherapy has a particularly destructive effect on lung tissue, so metastases there often turn out to be fatal.
An alternative method of fighting is considered immunotherapy, writes Harvard Gazette. In this direction , the scientists decided to move from Harvard University. Their work is based on the ability to attach drugs to red blood cells, which become almost ideal carriers. These ubiquitous cells circulate through the body, carrying oxygen, and if they carry medications, they do not cause unnecessary attention of the immune system.
As a drug, scientists chose the protein SHCL10, a chemokine that serves as a bait for the leukocytes of the immune system. And they made the nanoparticles carrying this protein so that they would only dump their cargo in the lungs.
In an experiment on mice with breast cancer and lung metastases, researchers found that nanoparticles remain in the lungs for up to six hours after injection of the drug, with most of them surrounding the cancerous tumor. The high level of SHCL10 lasts 72 hours. In response, the level of several types of immune cells in the lungs increases.
After 37 days, the mice had less than 20 metastatic nodules, and not about 100, as in the control group. In addition, they lived longer – a quarter of them lived to 40 days, while the rest died before the 20th day. In addition, scientists have noted the possibility of preventing the recurrence of cancer through the use of a new method.
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