A new study has found that a certain immune cell within the body that is known to play a crucial role in allergies and other immune responses is also capable of attacking cancer.
Immune Cell Found To Attack Cancer
These cells, known as human type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), can also be stretched beyond the body and used in larger quantities to overpower the defenses of tumors and eradicate malignant cells among cancer-filled mouse models.
The team from City of Hope that was behind the study was able to identify that human ILC2 cells are now part of the family of cells that can directly kill all cancer types, including solid tumors and blood cancers. This was noted by Jianhua Yu, PhD, a professor from City of Hope's Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. Yu was also the senior author of the study.
As time passes, these cells could even be manufactured, maintained through freezing, and then administered among patients. Unlike CAR T cells and other T cell-based treatments, ILC2s could be sourced from donors that are healthy. This shows a unique therapeutic potential as an off-the-shell and allogeneic product.
In earlier research that examined mouse cells, these immune cells did not consistently exhibit potential when they were examined for their capacities to kill cancer. However, in City of Hope's labs, researchers prioritized human cell examinations and discovered that the human immune cells do not have the same function as their mouse counterparts.
Michael Caligiuri, MD, who is a co-senior study author and also a professor from the same department, explains that, in most cases, mice are reliable when it comes to human immunity predictions. Hence, it came as a surprise to them that human ILC2s were able to function as direct cancer killers when their counterparts among mice were not.
The novel findings were included in the "Therapeutic application of human type 2 innate lymphoid cells via induction of granzyme B-mediated tumor cell death" publication.
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Cancer-Killers
In order to test the human immune cells, the team first proceeded to isolate the cells in a blood sample. Then, they made a new platform that was able to expand ILC2s taken from the body by 2,000 fold in four weeks.
These expanded ILC2s were then injected into mice that were engrafted with human AML (acute myeloid leukemia) or solid tumors. Results revealed that the population of immune cells could kill the tumors through a cancer-killing mechanism that was previously unknown.
Yu explains that one convincing and direct evidence piece surfaced when they placed one immune cell and one tumor cell together directly. The tumor cell was found to die, while the immune cell survived. This shows that ILC2s directly killed the tumor cells in the absence of other cells.
The professor also notes that these immune cells do not have to come from the own cells of the cancer patient. This means that there is a possibility of harvesting and freezing immune cells from healthy donors for ILC2 treatments in the future.
Both Yu and Caligiuri say that ILC2s are now a new member of the family of cytotoxic immune effector cells. The researchers are excited to see how the collective power of various cancer-killing cells can be harnessed to combat other conditions as well.
They also caution that since they are still in the initial stages of learning more about the cancer-killing properties of the immune cells, several questions still remain. Nevertheless, they plan to keep working with their collaborators to learn more about these ILC2s.
They were able to move through one hurdle in getting these immune cells to see clinical trials, which is having sufficient ILC2s for testing. These cells are rare in the body, and they are mostly found in the skin, gut, and lungs. The researchers have a platform that enables them to quickly grow the cells.
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