A new anti-cancer method: kill cancer cells with own T cells

  Cancer has always been a nightmare for human beings Conquering cancer has also become a holy grail for countless scientists and medical people All kinds of anti-cancer methods emerge in endlessly, but most of them are defeated in front of cancer's powerful defense However, the situation is expected to improve Now, British scientists have come up with a new way to fight cancer: to kill malignant tumors by using the T cells in human blood, the Independent reported recently This technology is still in the first stage of clinical trials What are the results? It may take five to 10 years for the answer to be revealed   Another way: T cells kill cancer cells
In the past 20 years, the research institute that founded immunocore has been hoping to realize its dream of developing a new way to treat cancer Now, many efforts seem to pay off In the past three weeks, the company has signed contracts with Roche Pharmaceuticals, a Swiss giant of biopharmaceutical companies, and GlaxoSmithKline, a British company These contracts are expected to bring about 500 million pounds to the company for its unique cancer immunotherapy, which uses the body's own immune system to fight cancer cells   Immunocore is probably the only company in the world that has found a way to treat cancer with the power of the innate killer cell of the immune system, the blood T cell In the millions of years of evolution, the main function of T cells is to "uncover" and kill invading pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria It is not good at discovering and killing cancer cells, but the senior officials of immunocore company are not willing to do so They have made unremitting research in this field for many years Now, the company's chief executive believes, they have found a solution, in the future, patients are expected to use their own immune system to fight cancer   "Immunotherapy is very different," says bent Jacobson, the company's chief scientific officer Jacobson has studied T cells for more than 20 years, and he also works in the molecular biology laboratory of the Medical Research Institute of Cambridge University "T cells are not going to lay off other cancer therapies, they're just icing on the cake and adding their own unique attributes to it, and it may have the potential to really cure cancer," he said It is this potential that has attracted the attention of U.S genetic engineering technology company, which is jointly owned by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline   Currently, the first phase of clinical trials of this treatment is being carried out in several patients with malignant melanoma in the UK and the United States These clinical trials have proved that people can accept these drugs well, and there are also "signals of early anti-tumor activity" Jacobson said immunocore's T-cell drug tests, as well as future tests, are intrinsically safe because the amount of drug used for patients is increasing Many clinical signs show that people are expected to achieve the desired breakthrough in anti-cancer   Immunotherapy: a new era of anticancer therapy
Now, it is no exaggeration to say that cancer immunotherapy has ushered in a new era of cancer therapy In the past, doctors mainly used surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy to treat cancer patients But there is a deep-rooted problem in these methods, that is, how to protect healthy body tissues from irreparable harm, while ensuring that every cancer cell is killed or eradicated   Using the body's immune system to fight cancer is one of the most promising areas of treatment The immune system is a network of cells, tissues and organs in the body It is a bodyguard to protect people from the threat of disease Of course, the immune system, like radar, constantly monitors whether there are cancer cells Scientists have long recognized that the immune system also plays a key role in cancer prevention There is a wealth of evidence to support this, and it is self-evident that patients with suppressed immune systems are more likely to develop cancer than other patients   The immune system uses two basic methods to fight invading pathogens and cells that have been "derailed" in the body One way is to release free floating proteins or antibodies, which will track the invaders and let other immune cells clean them up Many research institutions and organizations have tried to develop an antibody based anti-cancer therapy, but the effect is very small Part of the reason, Jacobson said, was that the antibodies they designed did not recognize cancer cells   Another method is cellular immunity T cell is the main cell of cellular immunity The basic idea of cellular immunity is: T cells are stimulated by antigens, proliferate, differentiate and transform into sensitized T cells (also known as effector T cells) When the same antigen enters the cells of the body again, sensitized T cells will cooperate with the cytokines released by sensitized T cells to deal with antigens Immunocore's immunotherapy is based on cellular immunity   Immunocore's T-cell anti-cancer methods are as follows: they got inspiration from "T-cell receptor" (the protein will stretch out from the surface of T-cell and attach to its hostile target), and designed some small protein molecules, immtacs, which can well play the role of double-sided adhesive One side of them will be very close and targeted to the cancer cells, and ignore the healthy cells The other end will stick to the T cells to kill the cancer cells   The key to their technology's success is that it distinguishes cancer cells from healthy ones Immunocore's drugs do this by identifying small proteins or peptides (peptide) that extend from the surface of the cancer cell membrane All cells push peptides onto the membrane, which, like shop windows, tell scientists what's going on inside the cell and whether the cell has turned into a cancer cell   Immunocore is creating a database of peptides targeting cancer cells to design T-cell receptors that target cancer cells and ignore healthy cells, minimizing side effects   In addition to the new method of immunocore, there is another anti-cancer method based on the human immune system, that is, the all human monoclonal antibody ipilimumab developed by Bristol Myers Squibb, which can recognize and attach a molecule named CTLA-4 on T cells In general, CTLA-4 will prevent the proliferation of T cells, but if there is any Primma is "present," and it's locked in, allowing T cells to proliferate and attack cancer cells effectively.