Scientists have identified new types of T cells that may help develop universal cancer therapies

February 20, 2020 / BIOON / -- recently, a report was published in the international journal Nature In the Research Report on immunology, scientists from Cardiff University and other institutions found a new type of killer T cells through research, which may bring hope for the development of "one size fits all" cancer therapy; T-cell-based cancer therapy is the current standard of cancer treatment, which is to remove, modify and re deliver immune cells from patients' bodies to To destroy cancer cells in the patient's body The most widely used therapy is car-t therapy, which can be customized for each patient, but can only target a part of cancer types At present, it can not effectively and successfully treat solid tumor patients, and solid tumor accounts for the vast majority of cancer types In this study, researchers found a class of T cells equipped with a new type of T-cell receptor, which can help identify and kill most human cancers without damaging healthy cells in patients This T-cell receptor can recognize a variety of cancer cells and special molecules on the surface of many normal cells in the body It is worth noting that it can also effectively distinguish healthy cells and cancer cells, and effectively kill cancer cells This means that it can provide new clues and ideas for the development of a wide range of cancer immunotherapies, which previously seemed impossible, the researchers said Photo source: how does the new T cell receptor of askhematologist.com work? Conventional T cells can scan the surface of other cells to find abnormalities and clear cancer cells expressing abnormal proteins, while ignoring cells containing normal proteins; this recognition system can recognize part of the cell egg white bound to human leukocyte antigen (HLA, cell surface molecule), so that killer T cells can observe the occurrence of cells during the scanning of cell surface Changes in life HLA varies greatly among different individuals, which makes it impossible for researchers to develop a single T-cell therapy that can target most types of cancer In this study, the researchers described a special T-cell receptor, which can identify multiple types of cancer through a single HLA like molecule called MR1; unlike HLA, MR1 does not change between people, which means it can be used as a special new target to help develop new immunotherapy What did the researchers find? The researchers said that T cells equipped with new T cell receptors in the laboratory can have multiple types of cancer without damaging healthy cells, including lung cancer, skin cancer, blood cancer, etc In order to detect the therapeutic potential of these cells in vivo, researchers injected T cells that can recognize MR1 into mice carrying human cancer and human immune system As a result, the researchers found encouraging cancer clearance results In similar animal models, the results were similar to the treatment effect of car-t approved by NHS in the UK, the researchers said The researchers said that by modifying the T cells in patients with melanoma to express new T cell receptors, the new T cells can not only destroy the cancer cells of patients themselves, but also destroy the cancer cells of patients in the laboratory, which has nothing to do with the type of HLA in patients Professor Andrew Sewell, the researcher, said it was unusual to find T cell receptors with such wide cancer specificity, which also increased the confidence of researchers in developing a wide range of new cancer therapies The researchers hope that this new type of T-cell receptor can provide them with a different path to target and destroy multiple cancer cells; currently, T-cell receptor-based therapy can only be used in a small number of cancer patients; the targeted cancer therapy developed by T-cell limited by MR1 may be expected to be a "one size fits all" strategy for cancer treatment, using a single type of T-cell may be It can destroy many different types of cancer in the population, which previously researchers thought was impossible What happens next? At present, researchers are in-depth research to determine the fine molecular mechanism behind the differentiation of new T cell receptors between healthy cells and cancer cells; the researchers believe that it may play a role by sensing the changes in cell metabolism, which will promote MR1 to present different metabolic intermediates on the surface of cancer cells , the researchers say they expect to test patients by the end of this year after further safety testing Researcher Sewell said the key to the ongoing safety test is to ensure that killer T cells carrying new T-cell receptors can only recognize cancer cells If the test is successful, researchers will face many problems, and they hope that the new therapy can play a certain role in patients in the future; researcher Oliver Professor Ottmann said that the new T-cell therapy can effectively overcome the limitations of current car-t-cell therapy If this revolutionary research result is confirmed, it may lay a foundation for later scientists to develop universal T-cell therapy, and reduce the huge costs associated with identifying, producing and manufacturing personalized T-cells At the same time, it can provide more research ideas and basis for later scientists to develop more new cancer immunotherapy Reference materials: [1] Crowther, M.D., Dolton, g., legut, M et al Genome wide CRISPR – cas9 screening Reeves ubiquitous T cell cancer targeting via the monolithic MHC class I-related protein MR1 NAT immune 21178 – 185 (2020) Https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-019-0578-8 [2] discovery of new T-cell trains prospect of 'universal' cancer therapy by Cardiff University