Caught by the Tail – Yale Scientific Magazine yalescientific.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yalescientific.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Tail spin: Study reveals new way to reduce friendly fire in cell therapy sciencedaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sciencedaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In a promising form of immunotherapy known as CAR T-cell (chimeric antigen receptor) therapy, the patient’s T cells are engineered to better recognize and attack antigens on the surface of cancer cells. In treatments currently approved for use in battling lymphoma and leukemia, however, the therapy has a drawback: Amidst the cancer-killing frenzy, many engineered T cells become tainted with the remnants of cancer antigens, which causes them to turn on other T cells. This eventually depletes the body of cancer-fighting cells and opens the door for a recurrence of cancer.
A new Yale study, however, has identified a way to tame the self-destructive tendencies of these killer T cells. Simply fusing a molecular tail onto the engineered T cells used in therapy, researchers say, can inhibit their proclivity to attack each other. The study was published July 27 in the journal Nature Immunology.