Boosting anti-cancer action by driving up immunity at tumor site
Source: Science Daily, December 2021
Driving up the immune response at the site of a cancer tumor with nanotechnology may help enhance immunotherapy treatments in advanced stages of the disease, new research in mice suggests.
In mouse models of numerous types of cancer, scientists boosted activation of T cells, important fighters in an immune response, inside tumors in a way that improved their interactions with an antibody therapy currently being tested in clinical trials.
The researchers injected nanobodies carrying messenger RNA, molecules that translate genetic information into functional proteins, directly into the tumor site to help T cells generate specific receptors on their surfaces. Experimental monoclonal antibodies delivered six hours later could then bind to those receptors to carry out their cancer cell-killing functions.