CANCER KILLER CELLS

Nano particles ?

Killer cells have a variety of receptors at their cell-surface that bind cancer antigens or normal antigens. The receptors that bind cancer antigens get activated, recruiting and activating kinases, which in turn activate signal cascades that lead to the killing of the cancer cell by the killer immune cell . Receptors that bind normal antigens in the target cell will also get activated but instead they recruit and activate phosphatases, which will silence the action of kinases. In this case the killer cell spares the target cell and moves on to check the health of other cells.New Haven, Conn. — Using artificial cell-like particles, Yale biomedical engineers have devised a rapid and efficient way to produce a 45-fold enhancement of T cell activation and expansion, an immune response important for a patient’s ability to fight cancer and infectious diseases, according to an advance on line report in Molecular Therapy. The artificial cells, developed, are made of a material commonly used for biodegradable sutures. The authors say that the new method is the first “off-the-shelf” antigen-presenting artificial cell that can be tuned to target a specific disease or infection. “This procedure is likely to make it to the clinic rapidly,” said senior author Fahmy. “All of the materials we use are natural, biodegradable already have FDA approval.”

Cancer, viral infections and autoimmune diseases have responded to immunotherapy that boosts a patient’s own antigen-specific T cells. In those previous procedures, a patient’s immune cells were harvested and then exposed to cells that stimulate the activation and proliferation of antigen-specific T-cells. The “boosted” immune cells were then infused back into the patient to attack the disease. Limitations of these procedures include costly and tedious custom isolation of cells for individual patients and the risk of adverse reaction to foreign cells, according to the Yale researchers. They also pointed to difficulty in obtaining and maintaining sufficient numbers of activated T-cells for effective therapeutic response.

In the new system, the outer surface of each particle is covered in universal adaptor molecules that serve as attachment points for antigens — molecules that activate the patient’s T-cells to recognize and fight off the targeted disease — and for stimulatory molecules. Inside of each particle, there are slowly released cytokines that further stimulate the activated T-cells to proliferate to as much as 45 times their original number. “Safe and efficient T-cell stimulation and proliferation in response to specific antigens is a goal of immunotherapy against infectious disease and cancer,” said Fahmy. “Our ability to manipulate this response so rapidly and naturally with an “off the shelf” reproducible biomaterial is a big step forward.”

www.cidpusa.org/P/ivig.htm

John Martin is a long-time health journalist .alternatives treatment of autoimmune disease read our E-BOOK

iF YOU COUGH AT NIGHT PLEASE READ ABOUT GERD