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There have been several groundbreaking studies in the past few years on how bio-engineered molecules can work to attack cancer cells and boost the immune system. Recently, a team of researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine has discovered that bio-engineered immune cells might be able to actually penetrate solid tumors, marking an exciting breakthrough in research and cancer-fighting treatment.
Immunotherapies for Treatment
Immunotherapy is a form of treatment that uses the patient’s own immune system to fight cancer cells in the body. It helps the immune system identify and attack cancer cells fast and more efficiently, before they have an opportunity to multiply and spread. This form of therapy has become a pillar in cancer treatment within the past decade.
A New Form of Immunotherapy: CAR T-cell Therapy
CAR T-cell therapy is a form of this treatment that was approved by the FDA in 2017. It has worked in some blood cancers, including leukemias and lymphomas, but researchers have found it difficult to get it to work with actual solid tumors until now.
Solid Tumor Treatment
While there has been some success in treating blood cancers, solid tumors make up the majority of adult human cancers and around 40% of childhood cancers, so finding a way to allow these cells to penetrate tumors and attack cancer cells is critical in treatment.
Engineering Immune Cells That Can Penetrate Tumors
The research team at Penn State College of Medicine has found a way to re-engineer these cells to kill solid tumors grown in their lab. The cells are blue-light activated. When exposed to the light, they are able to change their shape and structure to break into the network of proteins and cells that surround tumors. From inside the tumor, they can actually kill the tumor cells.
A Breakthrough in Treatment
The success that the researchers have seen in the lab is a real breakthrough for cancer-fighting treatments. One of the researchers stated, “This technology is totally out of the box. It’s akin to CAR T-cell therapy, but here, the guiding principle is the ability of cells to infiltrate the tumour. I don’t know of another approach that is anything close to this”.
Testing With Different Cancers
The team has tested the blue-light-activated cells with two types of solid tumors: ones created from human breast cancer cells and ones created from human cervical cancer cells. In both cases, the re-engineered cells killed the tumor cells within seven days.
Compared to Regular Killer Cells
They compared this to regular killer cells and found that the killer cells that were not re-engineered did attack the tumor from the outside but were not able to infiltrate the tumor.
More Work to Be Done
Despite the work being new, it is an exciting and novel step forward in cancer treatment. The researchers are hopeful that there are other activation clues that cells may respond to outside of blue light as well.
Conclusion
The ways that cells interact with tumor cancer cells mark an exciting and hopeful path towards cancer treatment. More study on cellular behavior and the manipulation of said behavior will help progress these studies.