Raising hopes for a cancer vaccine for different types of cancers, researchers have found that injecting minute amounts of two immune-stimulating agents<\/p>\n
directly into solid tumours in mice can eliminate all traces of cancer in the animals.<\/p>\n
A clinical trial was launched in January to test the effect of the treatment in humans with lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system.<\/p>\n
The approach works for many different types of cancers, including those that arise spontaneously, said the study published in the journal Science Translational<\/p>\n
Medicine.<\/p>\n
The researchers believe the local application of very small amounts of the agents could serve as a rapid and relatively inexpensive cancer therapy that is<\/p>\n
unlikely to cause the adverse side effects often seen with bodywide immune stimulation. “When we use these two agents together, we see the elimination of<\/p>\n
tumours all over the body,” said senior author of the study Ronald Levy, Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in the US.<\/p>\n
“This approach bypasses the need to identify tumour-specific immune targets and doesn’t require wholesale activation of the immune system or customisation<\/p>\n
of a patient’s immune cells,” Levy said.<\/p>\n
“Our approach uses a one-time application of very small amounts of two agents to stimulate the immune cells only within the tumour itself. In the mice, we saw<\/p>\n
amazing, bodywide effects, including the elimination of tumours all over the animal,” Levy explained.<\/p>\n
Cancers often exist in a strange kind of limbo with regard to the immune system. Immune cells like T cells recognise the abnormal proteins often present on<\/p>\n
cancer cells and infiltrate to attack the tumour. However, as the tumour grows, it often devises ways to suppress the activity of the T cells.<\/p>\n
Levy’s method works to reactivate the cancer-specific T cells by injecting microgram (one-millionth of a gram) amounts of two agents directly into the tumour<\/p>\n
site.<\/p>\n
One, a short stretch of DNA called a CpG oligonucleotide, works with other nearby immune cells to amplify the expression of an activating receptor called OX40<\/p>\n
on the surface of the T cells.<\/p>\n
The other, an antibody that binds to OX40, activates the T cells to lead the charge against the cancer cells. Because the two agents are injected directly into the<\/p>\n
tumour, only T cells that have infiltrated it are activated. In effect, these T cells are “prescreened” by the body to recognise only cancer-specific proteins. “This<\/p>\n
is a very targeted approach,” Levy said.<\/p>\n
“Only the tumour that shares the protein targets displayed by the treated site is affected. We’re attacking specific targets without having to identify exactly what<\/p>\n
proteins the T cells are recognising,” Levy added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raising hopes for a cancer vaccine for different types of cancers, researchers have found that injecting minute amounts of two immune-stimulating agents directly into solid tumours in mice can eliminate all traces of cancer in the animals. A clinical trial was launched in January to test the effect of the treatment in humans with lymphoma, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22444,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22442\/revisions\/22444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}