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Spanish >> Science-Technology
Updated 04/07/2018 – 09:28
Keywords: drug, cells, cancer
Microscopic confocal images showing macrophages (red) which involve cancer cells (green). – Ashish Kulkarni, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Washington, 07/04/2018 (The People Online) – Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (USA) designed a type special medicine that helps body to eat and destroy cancer cells. Treatment increases the action of white blood cells, called macrophages, that the immune system uses to swallow unwanted invaders. The first tests in mice, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, showed that the therapy worked for aggressive tumors of the breast and skin, reports the newspaper, according to ABC
Macrophages (immune cells that engulf and digest particles and pathogens) first line of defense against bacteria and viruses and can also help destroy cancer cells. In addition, they play a paradoxical role: they wake up the immune system (macrophages M1) and at the same time smother the inflammation (M2). The researchers found that cancer cells escape destruction by macrophages in two ways: by converting cells into docile M2 macrophages and by sending a "do not eat" signal that cheats on M1 macrophages. Now the researchers have developed a therapeutic treatment with a dual action to eliminate both mechanisms.
The new drug is a kind of "supramolecule" and was made from component molecules that bind together as building blocks. The researchers tested the therapy in animals with aggressive forms of breast cancer and skin cancer and compared the drug with another currently available in the clinic.
Researchers plan to continue testing the new therapy in preclinical models to assess safety, efficacy, and dose. The supramolecular therapy they have designed has been approved and they hope to transfer therapeutics to clinical trials in the coming years if preclinical tests remain promising.
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