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    Home > Biochemistry News > Natural Products News > Science weighs heavily! Potassium ion is the key to control the anti-cancer ability of T cells!

    Science weighs heavily! Potassium ion is the key to control the anti-cancer ability of T cells!

    • Last Update: 2019-04-15
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    April 15, 2019 / biool / - a study led by scientists from the Cancer Research Center (CCR) of the American Cancer Research Institute (NCI) reveals a way to promote the sustainable growth of tumors in the presence of tumor killing immune cells The discovery was recently published in science, which revealed a way to enhance the anti-tumor effect A new method of immunotherapy Science's dead cancer cells release potassium, which in some tumors is high The team reports that elevated potassium causes T cells to maintain stem cell like quality, or "stem cell sex," which is closely linked to their ability to eliminate cancer during immunotherapy The results show that increasing T cell exposure to potassium - or mimicking the effects of high potassium - can make cancer immunotherapy more effective "This study helps us better understand why cancer immunotherapy works." Dr Nicholas restifo, a CCR researcher who led the research group, said "The study could also point the way to a better, longer-lasting therapeutic response." Immunotherapy has a significant effect on some cancer patients, eradicating the difficult to treat tumors, and in some cases, it also leads to complete remission of the disease But many patients' tumors do not respond to immunotherapy, and researchers are trying to determine why In addition, some immunotherapy methods, such as car T cells and immunosuppressive checkpoint inhibitors, are limited by T cell life Cancer fighting T cells in the tumor "run out" and die As a result, researchers are exploring ways to help T cells used in immunotherapy survive longer and replicate and grow Dr restifo and his team have previously confirmed that high levels of potassium released by dying cancer cells into tumors can prevent T cells that invade and kill cancer cells In this new study, the researchers found that T cells grown in high potassium conditions also maintained the "dryness" of T cells This means that in tumors, stem cell like T cells have the ability to replicate themselves, but they do not mature to kill immune cells By keeping the T cells in this state, the tumor can avoid attack and continue to grow This may explain why T cells exist in tumors, but they can continue to grow However, when stem cell-like T cells are removed from a tumor, grown in large quantities in the laboratory, and then returned to the patient, they can mature into killer cells capable of attacking the tumor Dr restifo explained that the dryness of T cells - that is, their ability to self renew indefinitely and respond to stimuli to become cancer fighting cells - may have contributed to the success of adoptive cell transfer therapy The researchers then explored the efficacy of using high potassium levels to preserve T-cell stem cells for treatment They found that T cells grown in a high potassium environment were more effective in inhibiting primary and metastatic melanoma transplanted into mice They also found that when exposed to high concentrations of potassium, T cells isolated from patients' tumors and genetically engineered anti-cancer T cells had higher levels of markers associated with sustained growth and improved immunotherapy results Finally, the team demonstrated that when they used specific drugs to simulate the effects of potassium on mouse T cells, they could improve the ability of T cells to continue to grow and eliminate tumors This means that the drug may be used to induce T cell dryness as a strategy to enhance cancer immunotherapy The next step will be clinical trials, "using this knowledge for better treatment," Dr restifo said, but he is also excited that these findings will help us understand immunotherapy at present Reference: S.K vodnala El Al., "T cell stemness and dysfunction in tumors are triggered by a common mechanism," Science (2019) Doi: 10.1126/science.aau0135
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