Immune Cell Therapy

Apr 18, 2023

News Want a FREE PDF version of this news story? Complete the form below and we will email you a PDF version of "Study Uncovers How To Guide Immune Cell Therapy Towards Cancer" First Name* Send my copy ✖ Technology Networks Ltd. needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For information on how to unsubscribe, as well as our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, check out our Privacy Policy Listen with Thank you. Listen to this article using the player above. ✖ Want to listen to this article for FREE? Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles. ✖ Technology Networks Ltd. needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For information on how to unsubscribe, as well as our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, check out our Privacy Policy Read time: Immunotherapy, particularly  CAR T-Cell treatment for cancer , is extending the lives of many patients. But sometimes the therapy randomly migrates to places it shouldn’t go, tucking into the lungs or other noncancerous tissue and causing toxic side effects. A University of Rochester/Wilmot Cancer Institute team discovered the molecule responsible for guiding T cells toward tumors, setting the stage for scientists to improve upon the groundbreaking treatment. The next step is to find a drug that can manipulate the key T-cell protein, ST3GAL1, said  Minsoo Kim, Ph.D. , corresponding author of an article in Nature Immunology that describes the research. If the investigation evolves as planned, such a drug could be added to the CAR T-cell regimen to ensure that T cells hit their targets, Kim said. His lab  is collaborating with other Wilmot investigators to screen for drugs that will accomplish that feat, while also minimizing the risk of life-threatening side effects. Want more breaking news? “You can create very powerful treatments,” said Kim, co-leader of Wilmot’s  Cancer Microenvironment research program  at the UR, “but if they can’t get to their targets or they go to the wrong place, it does not provide the outcome you intended.” Enlisting a patient’s own immune system to wipe out cancer has emerged as one of the most promising advances in cancer care. CAR T-cell therapy involves extracting a patient’s own T cells, a type of white blood cell, and re-engineering them outside of the body to recognize cancer. Once the reprogrammed cells are infused back into the patient, they act as a “living drug,” searching for proteins on cancer cells for assault. In 2016,  Wilmot was selected as one of the few national sites  to begin clinical trials for this procedure, and later, upon FDA approval, became one of the first cancer centers in the U.S. to offer CAR T-cell treatment for eligible patients. CAR T-cell therapy is only approved to treat blood cancers , including some forms of lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma, according to the National Cancer Institute. It’s easier for the altered T cells to drift toward cancer hot spots in the bloodstream, Kim explained — but finding their way to solid tumors such as breast, lung, brain cancer, or melanoma is a completely different story. The T cells have to work harder to migrate through tissues and organs and identify a solid tumor. In fact, clinical trials testing this treatment in solid tumors have not been as favorable, Kim said. Wilmot research suggests that something occurs during the re-engineering of T cells that blunts their homing properties. Their discovery of the crucial migration-control gene that expresses ST3GAL1 came about through “unbiased genomic screening,” a more effective way to study the problem, Kim said. Investigators used a cutting-edge CRISPR technique to edit thousands of genes expressed in T cells, and then tested the migration-control abilities of those genes, one-by-one over the course of nearly four years, in mouse models. Reference: Hong Y, Walling BL, Kim HR, et al. ST3GAL1 and βII-spectrin pathways control CAR T cell migration to target tumors. Nat Immunol. 2023:1-13. doi:  10.1038/s41590-023-01498-x This article has been republished from the following materials . Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Advertisement