Action and Confrontation: How the Immune System Responds to Lung Cancer's "Strategy" to Fight Lung Cancer!

, June 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/bio-valley-
-by-the-
-type cancer is essentially a disease caused by DNA errorsin tumor cell DNA, there are a large number of mutations to guide growth, making it difficult for the body to destroy thetumorBut that doesn't stop the body's immune system from tryingThe competition betweenimmune system and cancer is complex, a mystery researchers at Cancer Research UK's TRACERx project have been trying to solvePreviously, they have shown howtumorscells evolve to adapt to the "microenvironment" of the surrounding immune systemBut the team knows it's not a simple one-way processThe main role ofimmune system is simple: to protect the body from threatsThis involves a variety of different types of cells, including a type of white blood cell called T-cellpicture source: Mutations in cancer cells are very useful for T cells because they are markers for T cells to recognize cancer cells As tiny cancers develop in the body, T-cells patrol and destroy them before they overdevelop But as tumors , they will find new ways to evade the immune system and start causing more problems Professor Sergio Quezada, an expert in of Cancer immunology at University College London, , said: "The question is, 'If the mutation is the hook that makes T cells interested in cancer, how does the mutation shape the T cells in the tumor ?' Quezada and other TRACERx researchers know that the longer the immune system is exposed to non-small cell lung cancer, the less capable of T cells working What they don't know is how the mutations found in cancer alter T cells and make them no longer able to fight but to understand how T-cells reach this stage, the team needs to go back and see how they start training team to fight any threat to the body, including cancer, consisting of a group of immune cells the backbone of any team is young players who have not yet faced their opponents These cells are called immature (or childish) T-cells, and like any inexperienced team, they need to be trained to function when these cells come into contact with cancer cells, they recognize the opponent and begin to change, a process known as differentiation Like early in your career, this is an opportunity to learn about your opponent's strengths, weaknesses, and unique style of play Quezada and his team wondered how the game unfolded To learn more, they used surgical samples from 31 untreated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who were at different stages of cancer progression (phase 1-3) By analyzing genetic material inside the tumor, they were able to create snapshots of the internal functioning state of the tumor this snapshot allows them to understand the cell composition at different points in time and build a differentiated "road map" -- a guide to the different checkpoints that T-cells go through in order to be able to attack cancer cells build a map they found that mutations inside cancer cells play a huge role in forming immune cells Through the identification and response of cancer mutations, a large number of different immune cells began to develop but when young teams train into experienced players (mature T-cells) to be able to fight cancer cells effectively, cancer cells adopt a new strategy over time, immune cells begin to tire " cancer has raised a firewall of resistance, making it difficult for differentiated T-cells to actually destroy every cancer cell So T-cells go into further differentiation, where they feel tired and stop functioning "
after too long in contact with cancer cells, older, ultra-mature T cells slowly become exhausted and unable to compete While recruits can provide new energy to help keep the immune system running, the number is limited the failure of some of the greatest teams is the lack of new talent to replace retired players, which is no different Once the immune system runs out of fresh, immature cells, it loses its ability to fight cancer effectively picture source: "We've learned that there's an adaptation in the tumor microenvironment that allows you to fight it If you don't completely eliminate tumor , you'll start losing younger progenitor cells, eventually leading to death "
look to the future
but the technology has limitations, despite its power Like photos of a player's career, these photos can show the player's maturity at any time, but they are just snapshots They can't capture the continuous details of the daily changes "We know that this shift to different stages of organizational differentiation is slightly related, " The higher the cancer phase in the patient, the longer the T-cell and tumor the length of exposure are also associated with this pattern of differentiation We can't be sure that it takes six months from point A to point B, and we don't have the data in between "
looking to the future, TRACERx researchers are looking for ways to use genetic data analysis to tumor seisphons cell age, and use this data to map the time it takes for differentiation to occur But it began to prove to scientists that when it comes to immune-boosting treatments, the sooner the better "therapeutic message, we believe this tells us that when the immune system in tumor is young, we need to intervene early with immunotherapy " (biovalleybioon.com) references: moves and counters: How immune system s's 'tactics' immune system key to understanding evolution cancer .