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New Type of Killer T-Cell

Reporter: Irina Robu, PhD

Scientists at Cardiff University have revealed a new type of killer T-cell which offers hope of a “one-size-fits-all” cancer therapy. Cancer-targeting via MR1-restricted T-cells is a thrilling new frontier, it increases the prospect of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ cancer treatment; a single type of T-cell that could be proficient of destroying numerous different types of cancers across the population.

T-cell therapies for cancer anywhere immune cells are removed, modified and returned to the patient’s blood to seek and destroy cancer cells – are the latest paradigm in cancer treatments. The most extensively-used therapy, known as CAR-T (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy) encompasses genetic modification of patient’s autologous T-cells to express a CAR specific for a tumor antigen, subsequent by ex vivo cell expansion and re-infusion back to the patient. The therapy is personalized to each patient, but targets only a few types of cancers.

Currently, Cardiff academics discovered T-cells equipped with a new type of T-cell receptor (TCR) which recognizes and kills most human cancer types, while ignoring healthy cells. This new TCR distinguishes when a molecule is present on the surface of a wide range of cancer cells and is able to distinguish between cancerous and healthy cells. Normal T-cells scans the surface of other cells to find anomalies and eliminate cancerous cells, yet ignores cells that contain only normal proteins.

The researchers at Cardiff was published in Nature Immunology, labels a unique TCR that can identify various types of cancer via a single HLA-like molecule called MR1 which varies in the human population. HLA differs extensively between individuals, which has previously prevented scientists from creating a single T-cell-based treatment that targets most cancers in all people. To investigate the therapeutic potential of these cells in vivo, the investigators injected T-cells able to identify MR1 into mice bearing human cancer and with a human immune system.

The Cardiff group were able to demonstrate that T-cells of melanoma patients modified to express this new TCR could destroy not only the patient’s own cancer cells, but also other patients’ cancer cells in the laboratory, irrespective of the patient’s HLA type. Experiments are under way to regulate the exact molecular mechanism by which the new TCR differentiates between healthy cells and cancer.

Source

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/cu-don012020.php