Study opens new avenue for immunotherapy drug development

Method utilizes engineered peptides to build up the body’s natural response

2024-04-19

(Press-News.org) HOUSTON ― In a new study published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have designed a new method for developing immunotherapy drugs using engineered peptides to elicit a natural immune response inside the body.

In preclinical models of locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer, this method improved tumor control and prolonged survival, both as a monotherapy and in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

“Amino acids are the building blocks of life and, when a few of them are linked together, they create a peptide. All the biological functions performed by our body are done by proteins and peptides, so our goal was to find a way to redesign these small molecules to possess the unique ability to activate our immune system,” said senior author Betty Kim, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Neurosurgery.

The body’s immune system is built to patrol and identify infected or diseased cells to eliminate, but cancer cells often exploit weaknesses in the immune system to avoid detection. The goal of immunotherapy is to bolster the body’s natural ability to identify and destroy cancer cells. Current immune checkpoint inhibitors are antibodies designed to block specific immune signaling pathways.

The engineered peptide improves the immune system’s ability to detect and destroy cancer cells in a unique way. Rather than using an external compound to initiate a response, or harvesting and modifying immune cells for cell therapies, the peptide serves as a messenger to activate specific signaling pathways in immune cells to boost their performance.

“These findings open a whole new avenue for developing immunotherapy drugs. By using designed polypeptides, we can potently activate immune signaling pathways to enhance anti-tumor responses. Additionally, since these are naturally derived agents, we anticipate the toxicity profile would be significantly better than with synthetic compounds,” said co-corresponding author Wen Jiang, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Radiation Oncology.

This study was supported by the National Cancer Institute (CA241070) and the U.S. Department of Defense. A full list of collaborating authors and their disclosures can be found with the full paper here

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

Study opens new avenue for immunotherapy drug development 2

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Baby sharks prefer being closer to shore, show scientists

2024-04-19

Remember #BabyShark? And no, this was not the very catchy song for kids that took the internet by storm. Earlier this year, social media was abuzz with stunning footage of a newborn great white shark, captured by a flying drone. Now, marine scientists have shown for the first time that juvenile great white sharks select warm and shallow waters to aggregate within one kilometer from the shore. These results, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, are important for conservation of great white sharks – especially as ocean temperatures increase due ...

UBC research helps migrating salmon survive mortality hot-spot

2024-04-19

When Kevin Ryan and the other hardworking volunteers at Mossom Creek Hatchery in Port Moody, B.C. release young coho smolts into the ocean, they’re never quite certain how many will return as adults. Mossom releases between 5,000 and 10,000 coho smolts each year, and is one of the few hatcheries to release coho directly into the ocean, rather than into a river. Until now, no research had looked at the success of direct ocean releases of coho. UBC researchers used acoustic telemetry to tag and track coho on their journey. The results were revealing: ...

Technical Trials for Easing the (Cosmological) Tension

2024-04-19

Thanks to the dizzying growth of cosmic observations and measurement tools and some new advancements (primarily the “discovery” of what we call dark matter and dark energy) all against the backdrop of General Relativity, the early 2000s were a time when nothing seemed capable of challenging the advancement of our knowledge about the cosmos, its origins, and its future evolution. Even though we were aware there was still much to uncover, the apparent agreement between our observations, calculations, and theoretical framework was indicating that our knowledge of the universe was set to grow significantly and without ...

Mapping plant functional diversity from space: HKU ecologists revolutionize ecosystem monitoring with novel field-satellite integration

2024-04-19

An international team of researchers, led by Professor Jin WU from the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has made a promising advancement in mapping plant functional traits from space using time-series satellite data. The study, published in Remote Sensing of Environment, showcases the innovative combination of the Sentinel-2 satellite mission and its dynamic time-series capabilities. This innovative approach not only unlocks a deeper understanding of essential foliar traits, providing crucial insights ...

Lightweight and flexible yet strong? Versatile fibers with dramatically improved energy storage capacity

2024-04-19

The latest wearable devices, such as Samsung's Galaxy Ring and Apple's Vision Pro, are taking healthcare a step further and even enabling people to work virtually. Given the characteristics of wearable devices that require them to be small and lightweight, there is an inevitable limitation on battery capacity, still presenting a technical barrier to incorporating a variety of functions. In order for wearable devices to fully realize the imagined life, it is necessary to develop a lighter and more fromlessenergy storage method. The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that a joint research team led by Dr. Hyeonsu Jeong ...

3 ways to improve diabetes care through telehealth

2024-04-19

Grocery stores, airports and beaches aren’t great places to have telehealth visits with your endocrinologist. But home can be one of the best locations, giving a doctor helpful insights into a patient’s home environment, which can positively impact their care. This is just one finding shared in a new study published this week in The Journal of Clinical Diabetes. Researchers interviewed clinicians and staff who provide diabetes care through telehealth across four University of California academic medical ...

A flexible and efficient DC power converter for sustainable-energy microgrids

2024-04-19

A new DC-DC power converter is superior to previous designs and paves the way for more efficient, reliable and sustainable energy storage and conversion solutions. The Kobe University development can efficiently interface with a wide range of energy sources while enhancing system stability and simplicity at an unprecedented efficiency. Electric power comes in two kinds, AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current). Famously, the question over which kind should be used for national power grids, the “Current War” of the late 19th century, got settled in favor of AC and most power plants today produce ...

Key protein regulates immune response to viruses in mammal cells

2024-04-19

Researchers have revealed the regulatory mechanism of a specific protein that plays a key role in balancing the immune response triggered by viral infections in mammal cells. These findings could help drive the development of antiviral therapies and nucleic acid medicines to treat genetic disorders. For cells to protect themselves from viral infections, a series of immune responses typically occur, including programmed cell death called apoptosis and interferon signaling. While apoptosis is a normal process, which occurs with or without the presence ...

Development of organic semiconductors featuring ultrafast electrons

2024-04-19

Professors Kimoon Kim and Ji Hoon Shim along with Dr. Yeonsang Lee from the Department of Chemistry at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Professor Jun Sung Kim from POSTECH’s Department of Physics and the Center for Artificial Low Dimensional Electronic Systems at the Institute for Basic Science created conducting two-dimensional polymers exhibiting electron mobility comparable to graphene. Their research has been featured in the online edition of Chem, an international chemistry journal. Graphene, called a ...

Cancer is a disease of aging, but studies of older adults sorely lacking

2024-04-19

A systemic review of the current body of research shows that investigators have inadequately addressed the intersection of aging, health disparities, and cancer outcomes among older adults. This is the conclusion of a new paper published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and led by Nikesha Gilmore, PhD, a member of Wilmot Cancer Institute at the University of Rochester. As the population of survivors of cancer 65 and older will likely double in size during the next two decades, the review reveals an urgent need for ...

A CRISPR screen reveals many previously unrecognized genes required for brain development and a new neurodevelopmental disorder

Why Some Bacteria Survive Antibiotics and How to Stop Them - New study reveals that bacteria can survive antibiotic treatment through two fundamentally different “shutdown modes”

Study opens new avenue for immunotherapy drug development

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: