{"id":5091,"date":"2020-01-21T13:11:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T17:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/?p=5091"},"modified":"2020-01-21T13:11:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T17:11:16","slug":"immune-discovery-may-treat-all-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/21\/immune-discovery-may-treat-all-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Immune Discovery \u2018May Treat All Cancer\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

(BBC) \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0A newly-discovered part of our immune system could be harnessed to treat all cancers, say scientists.<\/p>\n

The Cardiff University team discovered a method of killing prostate, breast, lung and other cancers in lab tests.<\/p>\n

\n
The findings, published in Nature Immunology, have not been tested in patients, but the researchers say they have \u201cenormous potential\u201d.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Experts said that although the work was still at an early stage, it was very exciting.<\/p>\n

What have they found?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our immune system is our body\u2019s natural defence against infection, but it also attacks cancerous cells.<\/p>\n

\n
The scientists were looking for \u201cunconventional\u201d and previously undiscovered ways the immune system naturally attacks tumours.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What they found was a T-cell inside people\u2019s blood. This is an immune cell that can scan the body to assess whether there is a threat that needs to be eliminated.<\/p>\n

The difference is this one could attack a wide range of cancers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a chance here to treat every patient,\u201d researcher Prof Andrew Sewell told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\n
He added: \u201cPreviously nobody believed this could be possible.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt raises the prospect of a \u2018one-size-fits-all\u2019 cancer treatment, a single type of T-cell that could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers across the population.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T-cells have \u201creceptors\u201d on their surface that allow them to \u201csee\u201d at a chemical level.<\/p>\n

\n
The Cardiff team discovered a T-cell and its receptor that could find and kill a wide range of cancerous cells in the lab including lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bone, prostate, ovarian, kidney and cervical cancer cells.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Crucially, it left normal tissues untouched.<\/p>\n

Exactly how it does this is still being explored.<\/p>\n

This particular T-cell receptor interacts with a molecule called MR1, which is on the surface of every cell in the human body.<\/p>\n

\n
It is thought MR1 is flagging the distorted metabolism going on inside a cancerous cell to the immune system.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe are the first to describe a T-cell that finds MR1 in cancer cells \u2013 that hasn\u2019t been done before, this is the first of its kind,\u201d research fellow Garry Dolton told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Why is this significant?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T-cell cancer therapies already exist and the development of cancer immunotherapy has been one of the most exciting advances in the field.<\/p>\n

\n
The most famous example is CAR-T \u2013 a living drug made by genetically engineering a patient\u2019s T-cells to seek out and destroy cancer.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

CAR-T can have dramatic results that transform some patients from being terminally ill to being in complete remission.<\/p>\n

However, the approach is highly specific and works in only a limited number of cancers where there is a clear target to train the T-cells to spot.<\/p>\n

And it has struggled to have any success in \u201csolid cancers\u201d \u2013 those that form tumours rather than blood cancers such as leukaemia.<\/p>\n

\n
The researchers say their T-cell receptor could lead to a \u201cuniversal\u201d cancer treatment.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

So how would it work in practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea is that a blood sample would be taken from a cancer patient.<\/p>\n

Their T-cells would be extracted and then genetically modified so they were reprogrammed to make the cancer-finding receptor.<\/p>\n

The upgraded cells would be grown in vast quantities in the laboratory and then put back into the patient. It is the same process used to make CAR-T therapies.<\/p>\n

However, the research has been tested only in animals and on cells in the laboratory, and more safety checks would be needed before human trials could start.<\/p>\n

What do the experts say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lucia Mori and Gennaro De Libero, from University of Basel in Switzerland, said the research had \u201cgreat potential\u201d but was at too early a stage to say it would work in all cancers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very excited about the immunological functions of this new T-cell population and the potential use of their TCRs in tumour cell therapy,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Daniel Davis, a professor of immunology at the University of Manchester, said: \u201cAt the moment, this is very basic research and not close to actual medicines for patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no question that it\u2019s a very exciting discovery, both for advancing our basic knowledge about the immune system and for the possibility of future new medicines.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(BBC) \u2013\u00a0A newly-discovered part of our immune system could be harnessed to treat all cancers, say scientists. The Cardiff University team discovered a method of killing prostate, breast, lung and other cancers in lab tests. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?fit=660%2C371&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?fit=660%2C371&ssl=1",660,371,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg",660,371,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg",660,371,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1",300,169,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?fit=660%2C371&ssl=1",660,371,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?fit=660%2C371&ssl=1",660,371,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?fit=660%2C371&ssl=1",660,371,true],"mh-magazine-slider":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?resize=660%2C371&ssl=1",660,371,true],"mh-magazine-content":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?resize=660%2C371&ssl=1",660,371,true],"mh-magazine-large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?resize=660%2C371&ssl=1",660,371,true],"mh-magazine-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?resize=326%2C245&ssl=1",326,245,true],"mh-magazine-small":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CANCER-CELLS.jpg?resize=80%2C60&ssl=1",80,60,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"adminrfm","author_link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/author\/adminrfm\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Health<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"(BBC) \u2013\u00a0A newly-discovered part of our immune system could be harnessed to treat all cancers, say scientists. The Cardiff University team discovered a method of killing prostate, breast, lung and other cancers in lab tests. [...]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5093,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5091\/revisions\/5093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}