SCIENTISTS have discovered a way to blow the “doors” off cancer cells for the first time, a study shows.
The new method triggers a “time bomb” in tumours that could open them up to new treatment, US researchers found.
GettyA new cancer treatment could blow the “doors” off tumours to allow immunotherapies to work, scientists say[/caption]
It targets cells that line a receptor on the cells’ blood vessels called Fas — or CD95 — that causes the death of that cell when triggered by the right antibody.
Dr Joggender Tushir-Singh, of University of California, Davis, said: “We have found the most critical epitope for cytotoxic Fas signalling.
“Previous efforts to target this receptor have been unsuccessful.
“But now that we’ve identified this epitope, there could be a therapeutic path forward to target Fas in tumours.”
Around 3million Brits were living with cancer last year, with experts predicting the number will increase to more than 5million by 2040.
The disease kills around 167,000 people every year — around 460 a year.
Immunotherapy is a type of treatment that helps the body’s own immune system fight the disease.
It works by helping the body recognise and attack cancer cells and is usually given alongside other treatments like chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Treatments like CAR T-cell immunotherapies have been shown to have huge promise in preventing cancers becoming resistant to surgery, chemo or radiotherapy.
However they currently only help a small number of patients because the T-cells used in the treatment are unable to break through most solid tumour types.
Dr Tushir-Singh: “These are often called cold tumours because immune cells simply cannot penetrate the microenvironments to provide a therapeutic effect.
“It doesn’t matter how well we engineer the immune receptor activating antibodies and T cells if they cannot get close to the tumour cells.
“Hence, we need to create spaces so T cells can infiltrate.”
The Fas receptor has previously been “undervalued in cancer immunotherapy”, according to the researchers.
But their new study, published in the Nature journal Cell Death & Differentiation, looked at how it can be affected to allow immunotherapies to work in mice.
They found an epitope — the part of the tumour cell that a T-cell can recognise — that could pave the way for developing therapies that specifically target Fas on tumours.
This could activate Fas to destroy cancer cells, and also open them up for CAR T-cell immunotherapy in a “one-two punch” against tumours, researchers said.
Dr Tushir-Singh said: “This sets the stage to develop antibodies that activate Fas, selectively kill tumour cells, and potentially support CAR T-cell therapy in solid tumours.”