Super cells fight cancer
November 03, 2008
SCIENTISTS have created super-charged immune cells that helped beat back cancer tumours in half of a small group of patients tested.
Adding an artificial receptor to T-lymphocytes immune cells boosted their ability to fight a deadly form of cancer called neuroblastoma, according to a study released today.
Neuroblastoma attacks the nervous system. It accounts for 7 per cent of all childhood cancers, and 15 per cent of non-adult cancer deaths. In two-thirds of cases, it is not diagnosed until it has already spread to other parts of the body.
In their natural state, T-lymphocytes do not survive long and lack the molecules that would target cancer cells in tumours. To overcome this double deficiency, a team of researchers led by Malcolm Brenner at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, first selected immune cells naturally stimulated by a common but harmless virus called Epstein-Barr.
They then modified these cells to express a receptor keyed to specific proteins found in human neuroblastoma cells.
In tests on 11 neuroblastoma patients aged three to 10, tumours regressed in five cases and in a sixth the disease receded completely.
Professor Brenner and his team plan to add receptors for other cancers. The study was published online in the journal Nature Medicine.
AFP