{"id":14103,"date":"2021-03-29T23:38:25","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T23:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/?p=14103"},"modified":"2021-03-30T08:50:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T08:50:32","slug":"new-immunotherapy-target-discovered-for-malignant-brain-tumour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/new-immunotherapy-target-discovered-for-malignant-brain-tumour\/","title":{"rendered":"New immunotherapy target discovered for malignant brain tumour"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New immunotherapy target discovered for malignant brain tumour<\/h1>\/ in E-News<\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/header>\n<\/div><\/section>
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Scientists say they have discovered a potential new target for immunotherapy of malignant brain tumours, which so far have resisted the ground-breaking cancer treatment based on harnessing the body\u2019s immune system. The discovery, reported in the journal CELL, emerged from laboratory experiments and has no immediate implications for treating patients.<\/p>\n

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Scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard said the target they identified is a molecule that suppresses the cancer-fighting activity of immune T cells, the white blood cells that seek out and destroy virus-infected cells and tumour cells.<\/p>\n

The scientists said the molecule, called CD161, is an inhibitory receptor that they found on T cells isolated from fresh samples of brain tumours called diffuse gliomas. Gliomas include glioblastoma, the most aggressive and incurable type of brain tumour. The CD161 receptor is activated by a molecule called CLEC2D on tumour cells and immunesuppressing cells in the brain, according to the researchers. Activation of CD161 weakens the T cell response against tumour cells.<\/p>\n

To determine if blocking the CD161 pathway could restore the T cells\u2019 ability to attack the glioma cells, the researchers disabled it in two ways: they knocked out the gene called KLRB1 that codes for CD161, and they used antibodies to block the CD161-CLEC2D pathway. In an animal model of gliomas, this strategy strongly enhanced the killing of tumour cells by T cells, and improved survival of the animals. The researchers were also encouraged because blocking the inhibitory pathway appeared to reduce T-cell exhaustion \u2013 a loss of cell-killing function in T cells that has been a been a major hurdle in immunotherapy.<\/p>\n

In addition, \u201cwe showed that this pathway is also relevant in a number of other major human cancer types,\u201d including melanoma, lung, colon, and liver cancer, said Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Cancer.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>
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