Scientists have found a new way to affect cancer cells: they will launch a “time bomb”
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Scientists have found a way to “knock down the door” leading to the heart of cancer tumors. This can make them vulnerable to drug treatment.
Scientists from the University of California at Davis and the University of Indiana, in a study published in Cell Death & Differentiation, studied ways of influencing the cells that line the blood vessels associated with the tumor, writes Science Alert.
“These vessels control access to tumor tissue, and until they are open, immune cells cannot enter the cancerous tumor to fight it. Meanwhile, the FAS receptor (or CD95) when activated by the right antibody triggers programmed cell death and is a ‘time bomb’ “for cancer”, – scientists note.
In their opinion, the role of Fas “in cancer immunotherapy is underestimated”: to date, no Fas antibody has passed clinical trials. However, during laboratory experiments on mice and human cell lines, scientists managed to identify specific antibodies that cause cell self-destruction when attached to Fas receptors.
| Photo: vitanovski/Depositphotos |
“Previous attempts to target this receptor were unsuccessful. But now that we have identified this epitope (a specific part of the ‘death receptor’ – ed.), we can talk about a therapeutic success that will help target Fas in tumors,” – explained immunologist and senior author of the study Jogender Tushir-Singh.
According to the researchers, the antibody that binds to the epitope actually becomes a switch for cell death. Once it can be turned on, other cancer treatments become more effective, including CAR-T, a therapy that works by programming a person’s own white blood cells to bind to and attack certain types of cancer cells.
The drugs gain access to more targets, which are often clustered together and hidden within the tumor.
In the new study, scientists developed two engineered antibodies that attached to Fas receptors. They were extremely efficient at causing companion cells to self-destruct and were able to deal with ovarian cancer and other tumor cell lines bred in the laboratory.
We will remind you that earlier we wrote that doctors in Lviv performed a rare operation on a patient to remove pancreatic cancer.
Read also: Over 20 years in the USA, the mortality of children and adolescents from cancer has decreased by 24%
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