An incredible advance in the fight against cancer has been made by scientists at Stanford University. They discovered that when turn cancer cells into immune cells, can teach other immune cells how to attack cancer.
The investigation carried out in rodents presents a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of cancer.
The study builds on previous research in this field conducted at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Institute in Seattle, showing that cells taken from patients with one type of acute leukemia can be turned into nonleukemic macrophages with many of the properties of special antigen presenting cells (APCs).
study with rodents
The research, published in the journal Cancer Discoverydetails how the scientific team reprogrammed rodent leukemia cells so that some of them are able to be induced to transform into APC.
By testing this strategy, of a cancer vaccine on the immune system of mice, managed to successfully identify the total elimination of cancer.
“When we first saw the data showing clearance of leukemia in mice with functioning immune systems, we were impressed. We couldn’t believe it worked so well,” said Ravi Majeti, lead author.
Vaccine count cancer
The team observed how the new cells were acting as antigen-presenting cells that sensitized T cells to cancer, reintroducing this disease. witnessed a strong immune response present more than 100 days after the initial injection.
The next alleged was Can it replicate in solid tumors? “We show that reprogrammed tumor cells could lead to a long-lasting, systemic attack against cancer in mice and a similar response with immune cells from human patients,” the authors detail.
The next steps for the team is to achieve extracting tumor cells in humans and transforming them into APCs, then returned to patients as a therapeutic cancer vaccine.
