Immunotherapy Booster
Adoptive cell therapy using genetically engineered T-cell receptors, or T-cell therapy with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T), which uses modified T-killers of the patient, is a new form of therapy that directs the body's immune system to destroy the tumor. This approach is quite successfully used for the treatment of certain oncological diseases of the blood. However, CAR-T therapy modestly showed itself in solid (dense) tumors.
Researchers from the Peter McCallum Cancer Center have found a way to add a new tool to the arsenal of immunotherapy, increasing the activity of immune cells to help in the recognition and attack of cancer cells.
The new approach will help overcome many problems of immunotherapy.
One of the main obstacles to effective T-cell therapy is that in many cases not all cancer cells within a single tumor look the same. Heterogeneity is often observed – high variability of the target protein recognized by CAR T cells in the same tumor.
Modified CAR T cells are very effective in destroying cancer cells that express the target protein. But, unfortunately, they are not very good at finding cancer cells that lack this target protein,
The key to overcoming this problem may be to attract other immune cells, including dendritic cells, to help T cells.
Their activation may overcome the problem of heterogeneity of cancer cells, since they specialize in activating the body's own immune system. To test this assumption, the researchers developed in the laboratory specialized T-lymphocytes capable of producing a molecule that attracts dendritic cells to the tumor.
When the researchers introduced the T-cells designed in this way into the body of mice with solid tumors, they found that they were able to cause an influx of dendritic cells into the tumor. The combination of this method with drugs that additionally activate immune cells has led to a much more effective reduction of the tumor.
In this way, the researchers were able to stimulate the body's immune system to attack multiple targets in the tumor and overcome the problem of heterogeneity. This is an important achievement that may lead to the creation of much more effective immunotherapy in the future.
Article J.Lai et al. Adaptive cellular therapy with T cells expressing the dendritic cell growth factor Flt3L drives epitope spreading and antitumor immunity is published in the journal Nature Immunology.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of PeterMac: Boosting the power of immunotherapy for more effective cancer treatment.