Stem cells to mass-produce cancer-killing treatment
Monday, August 12, 2013
Stem cell technology can be used to mass-produce cancer-killing immune cells designed to target different kinds of tumour, scientists have shown.
By John von Radowitz
But in practice, T-cells that target and kill cancer cells while ignoring healthy cells are very rare, and progress towards immune-based cancer treatments has been limited.
The new approach provides a way to reprogramme T-cells and create large numbers of them off the shelf primed to attack specific cancers.
A small number of healthy human T-cells were first reprogrammed into malleable stem cells with embryonic properties, US scientists reported in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
These induced pluripotent stem cells were then engineered to produce a tumour-specific receptor molecule on their surfaces.
Finally, the stem cells were coaxed to reacquire their original T-cell properties while expanding to large numbers.
Each of the T-cells now had the all-important receptor that allowed it to target a particular cancer antigen or protein, in this case lymphoma.
Read more:
Stem cells to mass-produce cancer-killing treatment