Scientists develop a vaccine that kills and prevents brain cancer

Photo: FRED TANNEAU/AFP/Getty Images

The battle against cancer is one of the most important in the global health sector and an important step was recently taken after the start of the development of an anticancer vaccine.

A group of scientists is taking advantage of a new way of turn cancer cells into potent anticancer agents. This new approach promises to kill established tumors and induce long-term immunity by training the immune system to prevent cancer from coming back.

In research recently published in Science Translational Medicine, the team of scientists tested their Dual-Acting Cancer Vaccine in an Advanced Mouse Model of the deadly brain cancer known as glioblastoma, with promising results.

“Our team has pursued a simple idea: take cancer cells and transform them into vaccines and cancer killersstated one of the authors, Khalid Shah, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI).

“Through genetic engineering, we are reusing cancer cells to develop a therapeutic that kills tumor cells and stimulate the immune system to both destroy primary tumors and prevent cancer,” adds Shah.

The approach that Shah and his colleagues have taken is different. Instead of using inactivated tumor cells, the team reuses living tumor cells, They possess an unusual feature.

As explained in the research, like homing pigeons, living tumor cells travel long distances in the brain to return to the place where their companions are.

Taking advantage of this unique property, Shah’s team manipulated live tumor cells using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool and reused them to deliver a tumor cell-killing agent.

In addition, the modified tumor cells were designed to express factors that facilitate the immune system its detection, labeling and memorization, preparing the immune system for a long-term antitumor response.

experiment on mice

The team tested its CRISPR-enhanced and reverse-engineered therapeutic tumor cells (ThTC) in different strains of miceincluding one containing human-derived bone marrow, liver and thymus cells, mimicking the human immune microenvironment.

“Our goal is to take an innovative yet translatable approach, so that we can develop a therapeutic cancer vaccine ultimately have a lasting impact on medicine,” Shah added.

The specialist and his colleagues point out that this therapeutic strategy is applicable to a broader range of tumors solid.

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