Cardiff University team discovers new method of killing cancers
pharmafile | January 21, 2020 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Cancer, Cancer cures, Cancerous, Cardiff University, T cell, cells, immune system, immunity, t-cell
A team at Cardiff University have discovered a new part of the human immune system that could be harnessed to kill prostate, breast, lung and other cancers in lab tests.
The findings were published in Nature Immunology. It has not yet been tested in human patients but the researchers feel optimistic about its potential.
The scientists found T-cells inside people’s blood. This is an immune cell that can scan the body to assess whether there is a threat that needs to be eliminated. T-cells have receptors on their surface that allow them to see at a chemical level.
Professor Andrew Sewell said: “There’s a chance here to treat every patient, previously nobody believed this could be possible. It raises the prospect of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ cancer treatment, a single type of T-cell that could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers across the population.”
The Cardiff team discovered that a T-cell and its receptor could find and kill a wide range of cancerous cells, but normal tissues are left untouched. It interacts with a molecule called MR1. MR1 is believed to flag a distorted metabolism going on inside a cancerous cell.
Research Fellow Garry Dolton said: “We are the first to describe a T-cell that finds MR1 in cancer cells – that hasn’t been done before, this is the first of its kind.”
In theory, this treatment would work by taking a blood sample; their T-cells would be extracted and then genetically modified so they were reprogrammed to make the cancer-finding receptor. The upgraded cells would be grown in large quantities in the laboratory and then put back into the patient. It is the same process used to make CAR-T therapies.
Conor Kavanagh
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