Tag : Radiation

Los Angeles: According to a team led by UCLA in collaboration with scientists from Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania, has demonstrated that a synthetic IL-9 receptor allows cancer-fighting T cells to do their job without the use of chemo or radiation. The findings of the research were published in the journal 'Nature'. Before a patient can undergo T-cell therapy designed to target cancerous tumours, the patient's entire immune system must be destroyed with chemotherapy or radiation. The toxic side effects are well known, including nausea, extreme fatigue and hair loss. T cells engineered with the synthetic IL-9 receptor, designed in the laboratory of Christopher Garcia, PhD, at Stanford, were potent against tumours in mice. "When T cells are signalling through the synthetic IL-9 receptor, they gain new functions that help them not only outcompete the existing immune system but also kill cancer cells more efficiently," Kalbasi said. "I have a patient right now struggling through toxic chemotherapy just to wipe out his existing immune system so T cell therapy can have a fighting chance. But with this technology, you might give T cell therapy without having to wipe out the immune system beforehand." Kalbasi, a researcher at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, began the work while under the mentorship of Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, a senior investigator in the study. The study was also led by Mikko Siurala, PhD, from the laboratory of Carl June, MD, at Penn, and Leon L. Su, PhD, of the Garcia Lab at Stanford. "This finding opens a door for us to be able to give T cells a lot like we give a blood transfusion," Ribas said. Ri ...