[ad_1]
Dr. Michele Ardolino (pictured here) and Dr. David Raulet and their colleagues have discovered that natural killer cells could play an important role in the body's response to cancer immunotherapy drugs called anti-dopamine inhibitors. control. Credit: L'Hôpital d 'Ottawa
Inhibitors of immune checkpoints are revolutionizing the treatment of cancer, but new research questions the central dogma of how these drugs work. This research, published in the prestigious Journal of Clinical Investigation, shows for the first time that often overlooked immune cells called NK cells play a crucial role in the response to inhibitors of checkpoints.
"Checkpoint's inhibitors work by waking up the body's immune system and causing an immune attack against cancer cells," explained lead co-author, Dr. Michele Ardolino, a scientist at The Hospital. Ottawa and Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa. "For many years, everyone has assumed that checkpoint inhibitors target immune cells called T cells, but our research shows that they also target natural Killer cells and that these cells play a key role in the operation of this treatment. "
Dr. Ardolino led the study with Dr. David Raulet, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
"In the field of cancer immunotherapy, we have been particularly interested in the mobilization of anti-tumor T cells," said Dr. Raulet. We believe that NK cells occupy an important place at the table. Control point therapy combined with other NK immunotherapies can enable us to target many types of tumors that currently do not respond to available treatments. "
T cells and NK cells can both recognize and kill cancer cells, but they do so in very different ways. NK cells recognize changes in cancer cells and are the first line of defense of the immune system. A T cell, on the other hand, recognizes a single abnormal molecule on a cancer cell and triggers a more targeted attack.
In this study, Dr. Ardolino and Dr. Raulet and their colleagues studied the effect of checkpoint inhibitors in various mouse models of cancer. They found that checkpoint inhibitors could reduce tumors even in mice without anti-cancer T cells, which means that another type of cell must respond to the checkpoint inhibitors. When the mice lacked NK cells, they significantly reduced or eliminated the anticancer effect of the control point inhibitors. They also showed that NK cells produce the same checkpoint receptor molecules as T cells, which means that they can respond directly to checkpoint inhibitors.
"This research helps solve a mystery that has been observed clinically, where some cancers are very sensitive to checkpoint inhibitors, even though their T cells do not seem to be activated," said Jonathan Hodgins, co-lead author of l & # 39; study. student at The Ottawa Hospital and at the University of Ottawa. "If we're right, NK cells are probably activated in these patients."
Researchers are now studying approaches to further improve the cancer-killing capacity of NK cells.
"My dream is that when people arrive at the hospital with cancer, we can do a biopsy and determine not only the mutations in their cancer, but also how their immune system interacts with their cancer," said Dr. Ardolino. "Then we would give the patient the immunotherapy treatments most likely to help them."
Explore more:
Researchers Find A Potential Key To Unlocking The Immune System In Pancreatic Cancer
More information:
Joy Hsu et al, Contribution of NK cells to PD-1 / PD-L1-mediated immunotherapy, Journal of Clinical Investigation (2018). DOI: 10.1172 / JCI99317
Source link
