Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
NEW YORK, 29th Jan. Scientists on Sunday have uncovered a mechanism by which cancer cells prevent the immune system from activating and attacking the cancerous invaders.
According to the study, published in the journal Cell Reports, sheds light on why immunotherapy treatments don’t work for all people or all diseases.
It said that certain types of cancers — including colon, pancreatic, prostate and brain cancers — have stubbornly resisted immunotherapy.
The researchers said that breast, oesophageal and head and neck cancers often respond favorably, sometimes the treatments don’t work as planned.
Researchers still don’t understand exactly why.
Jon Weidanz, associate vice president for research and innovation at University of Texas at Arlington said that “Immunotherapy is an incredibly promising new treatment avenue for cancer, but we still have work to do determining why it doesn’t work for all people or types of cancer.”
Research team determined that a key checkpoint in the immune system called NKG2A doesn’t engage with its specific binding molecule expressed in cancer cells until the appropriate signal is received.
Soroush Ghaffari, a postdoctoral fellow at the varsity said “The team reasoned that monotherapy agents targeting the NKG2A receptor may not be effective without receiving an inflammatory trigger”.
“This might explain why drugs designed to bind to the NKG2A receptor to disrupt this immune checkpoint have been only effective when used in combination with other agents that can induce the necessary inflammatory signal,” Ghaffari said.
The study said that a major finding revealed how certain cancers can inhibit the immune system from activating its macrophages, which are specialized immune cells that play a critical role in eliminating diseased or damaged cells.
Weidanz, a professor of kinesiology with an appointment in bioengineering and a member of the Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics said that “These data give us a new molecular understanding of why some immunotherapies work and some don’t,”.
“These results will help us identify and treat more cancers effectively with immunotherapy, helping more people live longer lives despite a cancer diagnosis.”
Kate C. Miller, vice president of research and innovation at the varsity said that these findings have implications for immune system research and the development of more effective immunotherapy drugs.
“These are exciting new research results that have the potential to impact people living with cancer,” Miller added.
