[ad_1]
An anti-cancer therapy based on the fusion of two cell types in a single unit seems promising to strengthen existing treatments for acute myeloid leukemia. The approach associates blood platelets bearing anticancer drugs with stem cells that guide platelets into the bone marrow, where leukemia begins.
The researchers found that when injected into mice with acute myeloid leukemia, combined therapy prevented the disease from developing further. Of the mice that received the treatment, 87.5% were cured 80 days after injection of the cell combination. These mice were also all resistant to leukemia cells that had been reinjected two months after the 80-day period.
The study was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
Zhen Gu, a professor of bioengineering at UCLA's Samueli School of Engineering who led the study, said this approach could be used in concert with other therapies, such as chemotherapy and treatment. stem cells, to improve their effectiveness. Gu added that the method should be tested and approved in the context of human clinical trials before it can be incorporated into the treatments of people with leukemia.
Acute myeloid leukemia is a cancer that starts in the bone marrow and can spread to the bloodstream and other parts of the body. With a compromised immune system, a person with this type of leukemia can die as a result of other complications.
As a treatment for leukemia, chemotherapy alone is only moderately effective: leukemia does not go into remission in about 1 in 3 patients after chemotherapy, according to the American Cancer Society. And about half of people with the disease who have remission may have a relapse – usually within two years of treatment – usually because chemotherapy can not reach the cancerous bone marrow cells.
The research conducted by UCLA aimed to solve this problem by designing a method to administer the drug directly into the bone marrow. The approach, called "drug delivery by cell combination", is the first to link two different cells for therapeutic purposes.
In the combined cells, blood platelets are used to administer immunotherapy drugs, called checkpoint inhibitors (UCLA researchers used a drug called anti-aPD-1 antibodies), which seek cancer cells and neutralize their defenses. Once this happens, the body's immune system can identify and destroy the cancer cells.
"This part of the cell combination is like a delivery truck," Gu said. "We can pack medications or immune system boosters on the cell surface of platelets and activate them to unload them once at the target site inside the body."
The second element of the two-cell combination is hematopoietic stem cells, or blood stem cells, that can enter the bone marrow through specific chemical signals.
"Hematopoietic stem cells are like a bone marrow guidance signal," said Quanyin Hu, lead author of the article and former PhD student at Gu Research Group. "Once the stem cells guide the combined cells into the bone marrow, the platelets can be activated, releasing immunotherapy cargoes inside the bone marrow to facilitate the immune defenses of the bone marrow. Organism, in this case T cells, to destroy leukemic cells. "
The researchers plan to continue to study this approach as a potential treatment for leukemia and other diseases.
Source of the story:
Material provided by UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
Source link
