Scientists have discovered a protein that could be a "switch" for cancer treatment

Scientists have found a protein that can help cancer patients' T cells to enter the damaged tissue precisely and kill cancer cells What is a T cell? It's a white blood cell produced by the body It's the foundation of our immune system Mature T cells are distributed to thymus dependent areas of peripheral immune organs through blood flow, and can be recycled through lymphatics, peripheral blood and tissue fluid to play the functions of cellular immunity and immune regulation It seems that it is a good cell to protect us
Now, immunotherapy is a new revolution in cancer treatment Cancer immunotherapy relies on a kind of cell called CD8 + T, which is a special T cell, specialized in destroying tumor and other virus infected cells CD8 + T cells can kill the target cells expressing antigens, which play an important role in anti-virus infection, acute allograft rejection and killing tumor cells
Scientists used a method called adoptive cell transfer to control the body's natural defense They extracted patients' T cells, genetically engineered them to lock in specific proteins that mark cancer cells, and then injected them back into patients For now, the treatment works only for some cancers, such as blood cancer But the effect on solid tumor is not obvious The key step to solve this problem is how to introduce T cells directly into specific damaged tissues A new study at the University of California, San Diego, has found a protein called RUNX3, which directs T cells to where they want them Scientists found that RUNX3 seems to be able to guide T cells to attack solid tumors after animal model test The growth speed of tumors in animals is delayed, and the survival period of animals is prolonged "RUNX3 works on chromosomes within T cells to make the number of T cells accumulate more and more in solid tumors," the scientists explained If we increase the activity of RUNX3 in the cell, the tumor will be significantly smaller and the survival rate of the tumor will be reduced Scientists say the discovery provides a new way to treat cancer, making it easier for T cells to kill cancer cells.