Scientists may have discovered a new paradigm for immunotherapy against
cancer by priming antibodies and T cells with cancer stem cells,
according to a study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
"This is a major breakthrough in immunotherapy research because we
were able to use purified cancer stem cells to generate a vaccine, which
strengthened the potency of antibodies and T cells that selectively
targeted cancer stem cells," said Qiao Li, Ph.D., a research assistant
professor in the department of surgery at the University of Michigan.
Cancer stem cells are tumor cells that remain present, and ultimately
resistant, after chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Scientists
disagree on whether these cells have unique properties, but those who
support the uniqueness idea have argued that these cells regenerate the
tumors that lead to relapse.
Despite the similar name, cancer stem cells are distinct from
embryonic stem cells, and the two avenues of research are separate.
For the current study, Li and colleagues extracted cancer stem cells
from two immunocompetent mouse models and used them to prepare the
vaccine.
"We found that these enriched cancer stem cells were immunogenic and
far more effective as an antigen source compared with the unselected
tumor cells normally used in previous immunotherapy trials," said Li.
"The mechanistic investigations found that when antibodies were primed
with cancer stem cells, they were capable of targeting cancer stem cells
and conferring antitumor immunity."
The researchers also found that cytotoxic T lymphocytes harvested
from cancer stem cell-vaccinated hosts were capable of killing cancer
stem cells in vitro.
Journal Reference:
- N. Ning, Q. Pan, F. Zheng, S. Teitz-Tennenbaum, M. Egenti, J. Yet, M. Li, C. Ginestier, M. S. Wicha, J. S. Moyer, M. E. P. Prince, Y. Xu, X.-L. Zhang, S. Huang, A. E. Chang, Q. Li. Cancer Stem Cell Vaccination Confers Significant Antitumor Immunity. Cancer Research, 2012; 72 (7): 1853 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-11-1400
Courtesy: ScienceDaily
No comments:
Post a Comment