The researchers found that cancer cells send "drones" to fight the immune system

researchers found that cancer cells can send "drones" to fight the immune system, a mechanism that promises to provide a new way to determine whether cancer immunotherapy is effective.
, published in the British journal
, showed that cancer cells release a vesicle in the blood called an exosome that strikes the body's immune system with precision like a drone. The vesicle, which is less than one percent the diameter of red blood cells, is wrapped in lipids and contains a substance, PD-L1.
, when PD-L1 binds to the programmed death protein-1 on the surface of T cells, it inhibits the immune response of T cells and blocks their ability to attack cancer cells, the researchers said. The "checkpoint inhibitors" currently commonly used in anti-cancer immunotherapy are expected to block this binding and thus infest the anti-cancer function of T cells.
, a professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania, said the immunotherapy could be used to treat metastasis melanoma, but only in 30 percent of patients. By finding a biomarker in the blood, you can early determine which patients are using the treatment.
malignant melanoma is the skin cancer with the highest fatality rate. The team found that PD-L1 is found in the exosomes of melanoma cells, which directly inhibits the anti-cancer function of T cells. A cancer cell can secrete multiple exosomes, so it can highly effectively inhibit the body's ability to fight cancer.
researchers say changes in PD-L1 levels in the blood's exosomes can be used to assess the effectiveness of "checkpoint inhibitor" therapy by reflecting the "war situation" between cancer cells and T cells.
the future cancer is expected to be managed as a chronic disease that can be adjusted by monitoring PD-L1 levels in the circulatory system, just as it is to monitor blood sugar levels in diabetics, Guo said.
researchers from Wuhan University in China, Xi'an Jiao Jiao university, the University of Pennsylvania, the Westa Institute and other institutions participated in the study. (Source: Xinhua News Agency Zhou Zhou)