When James Allison began studying whether the immune system’s T cells could be tweaked to attack tumors, merely entertaining the notion was a good way to sink your scientific career: Cancer immunology was a backwater within oncology, and a vaguely disreputable one at that. Little wonder, then, that after the discovery of a protein “brake” on T cells called CTLA-4,...
Category: <span>Immunology</span>
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Pathogens may evade immune response with metal-free enzyme required for DNA replication
Some bacterial pathogens, including those that cause strep throat and pneumonia, are able to create the components necessary to replicate their DNA without the usually required metal ions. This process may allow infectious bacteria to replicate even when the host’s immune system sequesters iron and manganese ions in an attempt to slow pathogen replication. A new study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National...
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The dual and unknown function of the immune system
CNIC researchers have discovered that the immune system is important not only in the defense against disease but also for the day-to-day function of a healthy organism CENTRO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES CARDIOVASCULARES IMAGE: FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ANDRÉS HIDALGO, MARIA SÁNCHEZ, ANDREA RUBIO, FRANCISCO MAYO, IVÁN BALLESTEROS, ALEJANDRA AROCA, GEORGIANA CRAINICIUC, SANDRA MARTÍN, JUAN QUINTANA, JOSÉ MARÍA ADROVER, ITZIAR COSSÍO, AND...
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Killer cell immunotherapy offers potential cure for advanced pancreatic cancer
A new approach to treating pancreatic cancer using ‘educated killer cells’ has shown promise, according to early research by Queen Mary University of London QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON The new cell-based immunotherapy, which has not yet been tested in humans with pancreatic cancer, led to mice being completely cancer-free, including cancer cells that had already spread to the liver...
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Immunotherapy Complete Response Data Suggest Metastatic Melanoma Cures
This is Dr Jeffrey Weber. I am a medical oncologist at the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at New York University Langone Health in New York City. Today we will be talking about a very interesting article that appeared several months ago in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,[1] which I think sheds light on...
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Stage four sarcomatoid kidney cancer patient first to show complete response to immunotherapy
“You see this place on the image? That’s where your kidney was,” says VCU Massey Cancer Center medical oncologist Asit Paul, M.D., Ph.D., to 69-year-old Thomas Bland. “And the tumors we saw in your lung and other places still have not returned. I’m happy to say you’ve been disease-free for more than two-and-a-half years.” Asit...
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New cancer vaccine can teach the immune system to ‘see’ rogue cells and kill them
Vaccine teaches immune system to recognise rogue cells as part of treatment Method involves extracting immune cells from a patient, altering them in lab they can then ‘see‘ a protein common to many cancers and then reinjected A trial vaccine is showing promising results in patients with a range of cancers. One woman treated with the vaccine, which teaches the immune system to recognize rogue cells, saw her ovarian cancer...
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Penn discovers new, rare mechanism for ALL to relapse after CAR T cell therapy
A single leukemia cell, unknowingly engineered with the leukemia-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) lentivirus and infused back into a patient, was able to reproduce and cause a deadly recurrence of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Newresearch from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania found that in one patient, the CAR lentivirus that would usually enter a T cell to teach...
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Immune system’s balancing act keeps bowel disease in check
Australian researchers have uncovered clues in the immune system that reveal how the balance of ‘good’ gut bacteria is maintained. This information could help in the prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) WALTER AND ELIZA HALL INSTITUTE IMAGE: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR SETH MASTERS AND DR ALAN YU. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, showed that the increased presence of...
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Could less deadly therapies be a better way to keep cancer in check?
While many cancer therapies initially can be very successful, tumors often return and spread when remaining cancer cells develop resistance to treatment. To combat this tendency, Frédéric Thomas of the French National Centre for Scientific Research proposes that cancer researchers take a lesson from our own immune system and explore “natural adaptive therapies.” Such an...