(Press-News.org) New Haven, Conn. — In a promising form of immunotherapy known as CAR T-cell (chimeric antigen receptor) therapy, the patient’s T cells are engineered to better recognize and attack antigens on the surface of cancer cells. In treatments currently approved for use in battling lymphoma and leukemia, however, the therapy has a drawback: Amidst the cancer-killing frenzy, many engineered T cells become tainted with the remnants of cancer antigens, which causes them to turn on other T cells. This eventually depletes the body of cancer-fighting cells and opens the door for a recurrence of cancer.
A new Yale study, however, has identified a way to tame the self-destructive tendencies of these killer T cells. Simply fusing a molecular tail onto the engineered T cells used in therapy, researchers say, can inhibit their proclivity to attack each other. The study was published July 27 in the journal Nature Immunology.
“It’s like putting a sword back in the sheath after it has done its work,’’ said Sidi Chen, associate professor of genetics at Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study.
For the study, the Yale team — which was led by co-first authors Xiaoyu Zhou and Hanbing Cao — fused CTLA-4 cytoplasmic tails (CCTs) to engineered CAR T cells. CCTs are a portion of a naturally occurring human protein, known as CTLA-4, which is known to keep the immune system in check by regulating T cells. Researchers observed that the cells fused with these tails were less exhausted and survived longer than CAR T cells without the tails.
“The CAR T cells with the engineered tails were less reactive but more persistent” in killing cancer cells, said Zhou, a postdoctoral associate in Chen’s lab.
Chen says it would be relatively easy for existing companies to fuse CCTs to CAR T cells, and that improvements in therapy might help expand treatments to solid tumors as well.
Chen is affiliated with the Yale Cancer Center, the Yale Stem Cell Center, the Yale Center for Biomedical Data Science, and the Systems Biology Institute and Center for Cancer Systems Biology at Yale’s West Campus. The work is supported by National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, and several foundations.
END
Tail spin: Study reveals new way to reduce friendly fire in cell therapy
2023-07-27
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) chooses Symplectic Grant Tracker to manage funding for innovative scientific research
2023-07-27
Digital Science, a technology company serving stakeholders across the research ecosystem, is pleased to announce that the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) has chosen Symplectic Grant Tracker from Digital Science’s suite of flagship products to advance its aims of providing catalytic funding for innovative scientific research and the development of academic scientists.
RCSA joins the 50+ foundations, charities and funders worldwide who manage their end-to-end grant lifecycle using Symplectic Grant Tracker. Designed from the outset to meet research funding needs, Grant Tracker includes features to assist applicants, reviewers, committees and ...
Investigators identify translation gaps in instrument that measures nursing practice environment
2023-07-27
PHILADELPHIA (July 27, 2023) – Two decades ago, the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index was published to measure the nursing practice environment. Although the instrument's use has resulted in advances in science and quality improvement efforts, its potential may be limited by the availability and quality of translations into different languages.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) investigated published translations of the instrument and have identified ...
Illicit drug use is involved in nearly one in three sudden cardiac deaths in young adults
2023-07-27
Philadelphia, July 27, 2023 – Approximately one-third of young adults in Victoria, Australia, who experienced sudden cardiac deaths (SCDs) outside of a hospital setting from April 2019 to April 2021 used illegal drugs prior to their fatal events, reports a new study in Heart Rhythm, the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society, the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society, and the Pediatric & Congenital Electrophysiology Society, published by Elsevier. The analysis of data on substance abuse, revealed through positive toxicology reports and patient histories and recorded in one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive SCD registries, ...
$3 million grant awarded to MU researcher for leading biomedical and agricultural innovation
2023-07-27
In a new study funded by a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), University of Missouri researcher Kiho Lee, an associate professor in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, will use gene editing to investigate the building blocks of disease. His ultimate goal — to discover clinically significant explanations for human diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer and infertility, while working on solutions to global food insecurity.
Common diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, are widespread in humans, plaguing an estimated 11% or 6.7 million Americans over age 65, according to The ...
New study reveals that tree species diversity increases spider density
2023-07-27
Spiders are often maligned for being creepy critters, but they are some of the most environmentally friendly pest regulators. Because they actively feed on flies, moths, mosquitoes and roaches, spiders eliminate parasites and many other vectors of disease—protecting both humans and plants from harm.
A new University of Maryland-led study published online in the journal Ecology found one simple way to take advantage of this natural ecosystem service: give tree-dwelling spiders a more diverse habitat.
“We found that there’s ...
IU researchers diagnose Indianapolis Zoo orangutan with rare genetic disease
2023-07-27
NDIANAPOLIS—Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine have diagnosed a Sumatran Orangutan at the Indianapolis Zoo with a rare genetic disease called Alkaptonuria. This is the first time the disease has been confirmed molecularly in a primate other than a human.
The six-year-old orangutan, named Mila, was born at the Indianapolis Zoo in 2016. Mila had a history of dark urine that turned brown upon standing since birth, but has never shown other symptoms. Researchers from the IU School of Medicine Department of Medical ...
New $3 million grant supports research on leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide
2023-07-27
University of Missouri researchers are striving to find solutions to the leading cause of maternal mortality in the world — preeclampsia. For Laura Schulz, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and women’s health in the University of Missouri School of Medicine, understanding the root causes of preeclampsia and other complicated, life-threatening maternal conditions is pivotal in advancing women’s health care.
Supported by a renewed $3 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Schulz and her team will use ...
Making renewable, infinitely recyclable plastics using bacteria
2023-07-27
Plastic waste is a problem. Most plastics can’t be recycled, and many use finite, polluting petrochemicals as the basic ingredients. But that’s changing. In a study published today in Nature Sustainability, researchers successfully engineered microbes to make biological alternatives for the starting ingredients in an infinitely recyclable plastic known as poly(diketoenamine), or PDK.
The finding comes from collaboration among experts at three facilities at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab): the Molecular Foundry, the Joint BioEnergy Institute ...
Short bursts of daily activity linked to reduced cancer risk
2023-07-27
Promising new research suggests a total of just 4.5 minutes of vigorous activity that makes you huff and puff during daily tasks could reduce the risk of some cancers by up to 32 percent.
Published in JAMA Oncology and led by the University of Sydney, Australia, the study used data from wearable devices to track the daily activity of over 22,000 ‘non-exercisers’. Researchers then followed the group’s clinical health records for close to seven years to monitor for cancer.
As few as four to five minutes of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity or ‘VILPA’ was associated with a substantially lower cancer risk compared to those who undertook no ...
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory restores cold sensation in amputees’ phantom limbs
2023-07-27
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) researchers have developed one of the world’s smallest, most intense and fastest refrigeration devices, the wearable thin-film thermoelectric cooler (TFTEC), and teamed with neuroscientists to help amputees perceive a sense of temperature with their phantom limbs. This advancement, one of the first of its kind, enables a useful new capability for a variety of applications, including improved prostheses, haptics for new modalities in augmented reality (AR) and thermally-modulated therapeutics for applications such as pain management. The technology also has a variety ...