Cancer vaccine: Living drug T-cells patrol the body, recognise and attack enemy cancer cells [Video]
Researchers have developed a revolutionary new cancer treatment in which they have engineered body cells that act like vaccines for cancer cure. These engineered cells in immunotherapy trials boost body’s natural defence and protect against cancer for life. It as if these “stem memory” T-cells remember the disease and attack enemy cancer cells the moment they detect them.
“T-cells are a living drug, and in particular they have the potential to persist in our body for our whole lives. Some of these memory T-cells will persist through the entire life of the organism ... Imagine translating this to cancer immunotherapy, to have memory T-cells that remember the cancer and are ready for it when it comes back,” said Italy’s University of Milan’s lead researcher Prof. Chiara Bonini.
Related: Cancer treatment: New test makes early detection possible, may reduce cancer-related deaths
The researchers had to make use genetic modification to prime the memory T-cells so that they can target and attack cancer. Bonini’s team went through with their research considering 10 cancer patients who had undergone bone marrow transplants. These cancer patients were infused with tagged T-cells for the purpose of tracking.
Even after 14 years, a small number of these cells were still found to be circulating in the patients’ blood streams. The finding of the study was described at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, held in Washington DC.
“The implication is that infusing genetically modified versions of these particular T-cells ... could provide a long-lasting immune response against a person's cancer,” said University of Manchester immunologist Prof. Daniel Davis.
He added that immunotherapy can revolutionise cancer treatment and this new cancer study has proved the type of T-cells that can be especially useful in manipulating for long-lasting protection.
In yet another T-cell research, scientists found a possible cure to cancer by extracting white blood cells from cancer patients who are terminally sick and reprogramming it. After the reprogrammed cells were reinjected into the patients’ bloodstream, the symptoms of over 90 percent of the leukaemia patients disappeared.
Watch Killer T Cell: The Cancer Assassin here.
Source: YouTube/ Cambridge University
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