Useful toxoplasma

Scientists stopped the development of cancer with the help of a common parasite

Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+

Scientists have shown that if the toxoplasm is modified, it is possible to stop the growth of the tumor and at the same time make it sensitive to immunotherapy. The first results showed effectiveness in the fight against melanoma, lung and bowel cancer.

Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite that does not pose a serious danger to humans, except for pregnant women and people with weakened immunity. Now an international team of researchers has shown that Toxoplasma gondii can create conditions for a strong immune response to cancer and enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy for so-called cold tumors, which usually do not respond to treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Article by Zhu et al. Synergy between Toxoplasma gondii type I ΔGRA17 immunotherapy and PD-L1 checkpoint inhibition triggers the regression of targeted and distal tumors published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy Cancer – VM.

The team created a mutant strain of Toxoplasma gondii, which has a limited ability to grow in cultured cells or cause disease, but is able to manipulate the host's immune system.

Experiments on mouse models have shown that injection of the mutant version into tumors causes an inflammatory reaction not only at the injection site, but also in distant secondary foci, increasing sensitivity to immunotherapy.

As a result of the combined approach, it was possible to reduce the growth of cancer and increase the life expectancy of rodents. Efficacy has been demonstrated in models of melanoma, lung and colon cancer, but the potential of therapy is applicable to various types of cancer, the authors said.

Further preclinical studies should confirm this hypothesis and assess human safety for planning clinical trials.

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