Mark and destroy

Scientists have helped the immune system to find cancer cells

Nikita Shevtsov, N+1

Immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of cancer, but existing methods do not work on all patients or do not work at all against some types of cancer. Some types of immunotherapy sometimes do not allow the body to recognize all types of cancer cell masking, which makes them less effective.

To eliminate these shortcomings, scientists from Yale University have developed a new system that combines viral gene therapy and CRISPR gene editing technology. Instead of finding and editing DNA fragments by inserting new genes, a new system called multiplex activation of endogenous genes in immunotherapy (MAEGI) launches a massive hunt for tens of thousands of cancer-related genes, and then acts as GPS to mark their location and amplify signals.

MAEGI tags tumor cells to isolate them for the human immune system. Due to this, a cold tumor (without immune cells) turns into a hot one (with immune cells). It's like dressing up criminals in orange jumpsuits so the police can easily find them on the streets.

The new technology has managed to reduce and in some cases even eliminate melanoma and triple negative tumors of the breast and pancreas in mice – even those that are located far from the main source of the tumor.

Theoretically, the new system should be effective against many types of cancer, including those that are currently resistant to immunotherapy. Upcoming studies will optimize the system to simplify production and preparation for clinical trials in cancer patients.

Article by Wang et al. Multiplexed activation of endogenous genes by CRISPRa elicits potent antitumor immunity is published in the journal Nature Immunology.

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