They create a new way to safely stimulate immune cells against cancer

A new type of immunotherapy against cancer which places in the tumors Cytokines are proteins that control the activity of cells immune response, thus improving the effectiveness of the treatment, has been developed by researchers at Virginia State University (USA).

A study published today in Science Advances reports a new technique to activate the body’s immune cells and reprogram them so that they attack and destroy cancer cells.

Cytokines are powerful and very effective at stimulating immune cells to kill cancer cells, but they are so powerful that if they roam freely in the body, they will activate any immune cells they encounter, which can cause an overactive response with potentially life-threatening side effects. .

The team developed an innovative method to employ cytokine proteins as a potential immunotherapy treatment. The technique guarantees that these are effectively located inside the tumors for weeks, preserving the structure and reactivity levels of the cytokine.

Although it was already known that cytokines can be used to fight tumors, it was not yet possible to locate them within the tumor without them being toxic to the rest of the body, explained Rong Tong, one of the signatories of the work.

The team’s goal was to find a balance between eliminating cancer cells from the body and preserving healthy ones, so they created specialized particles with distinctive sizes that help determine where the drug goes.

To guarantee the success of the drug administration, the researchers designed a novel strategy with a double objective.

On the one hand, anchor cytokines to the new microparticles, thus limiting damage to healthy cells; On the other hand, it allows them to activate immune systems and recruit immune cells to attack cancer cells.

“Our strategy not only minimizes cytokine-induced damage to healthy cells, but also prolongs cytokine retention in the tumor,” which facilitates the recruitment of immune cells for selective attack, Tong explained.

The next step is to combine the new method of localized cytokine therapy with checkpoint blocking antibodies, which are commercially available and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Those blocking antibodies reactivate tumor immune cells that have been silenced so they can fight cancer cells.

The new method of attaching cytokines to particles could also be used in the future, according to the team, to deliver other types of immunostimulant drugs.

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