Shedding "Light" on Cancer Immunotherapy
Imagine an army preparing to battle a deadly foe, soldiers training to recognize, seek out and destroy the enemy. Now imagine this scenario taking place inside the human body, where the soldiers are killer T-cells and the enemy is a cancerous tumor. Dr. Yang-Xin Fu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology, and his team have developed a system that alerts the body to the presence of cancerous tumors, which, unlike bacteria or viruses, have developed in ways that elude the immune system, allowing them to grow and invade unchecked. His research efforts run counter to traditional approaches to cancer treatment, such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
"Chemotherapy and radiation often kill 90-95% of the tumor cells, but kill off the immune system 100%, so when those cells reestablish themselves, the immune system isn't prepared to address them," Fu explains. "Using this approach you are always behind in fighting the tumor cells.
Many times, these traditional methods eliminate most but not all of the tumor cells, often times impairing the immune system in the process. Those few remaining tumor cells are then able to reestablish themselves in the same or new areas of the body, a problem that has been a great barrier for modern cancer research. Fu addresses this hurdle by attempting to harness the power and versatility of the immune system to fight cancer cells not only in the location of the primary tumor but also in distal locations throughout the body.
Fu's process approaches the tumor from the inside out. Researchers directly inject the tumor with modified cells expressing LIGHT, a member of the tumor necrosis factor superfamily. LIGHT performs two primary functions, first acting as a tether by binding receptors on both tumor stromal cells and T cells, and second by stimulating stromal cells to produce molecules that attract and activate killer T cells. "LIGHT can convert normal tissue to lympho-like tissue, making the tumor basically like a lymph node," says Fu. "So now all the lymphocytes can travel in and out of the tumor. In this way, you basically allow your troops to freely go to the battlefield and learn to recognize the tumor. Then they can circulate throughout the body seeking out and destroying similar tumor cells in other locations."
Shedding "Light" on Cancer Immunotherapy Imagine an army preparing to battle a deadly foe, soldiers training to recognize, seek out, and destroy the enemy. Now imagine this scenario taking place inside the human body, where soldiers are killer T-cells and the enemy is a cancerous tumor...
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Recent Recruitemnts and Appointments of Biological Sciences Division Faculty
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