immunotherapy | Common News Update

Feb172021 by adminNo Comments

Breakthrough mRNA vaccine developed for cancer immunotherapy

Technology

Research involving messenger RNA (mRNA) has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, and scientists are now reporting a new vaccine for cancer immunotherapy.Similar to COVID-19 vaccines, Chinese scientists have developed a new mRNA vaccine that activates the immune system to attack a protein made by tumour cells instead of the protein produced by the coronavirus. Crucially, this mRNA is contained in a breakthrough hydrogel developed by the team from the Chinese National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, that, when injected into mice with melanoma, slowly released the RNA which successfully caused tumours to shrink and prevented them from metastasising. Both of the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna use mRNA to send genetic instructions to the body's cells ...

Study: Modified immunotherapy may work in advanced breast cancer

Health

Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Women with advanced breast cancer may have a new weapon in their fight against the disease -- a modified form of immunotherapy. CAR-T immunotherapy, in which T cells from a patient's immune system are modified to target cancer cells, has been most effective in the treatment of B-cell leukemia or lymphoma, both of which are cell-based, rather than solid-tumor cancers like breast cancer. Advertisement Adding a molecule found in immune cells called cGAMP to standard CAR-T boosts its efficacy in breast cancer by encouraging the body's immune cells to attack solid tumors, according to the authors of a study published Thursday by the Journal of Experimental Medicine. The success of this boosted CAR-T in mice used for the study may be a potential "game changer," researchers said...

Study: Blood test identifies melanoma patients who will benefit most from immunotherapy

Health

Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Cancer patients with high levels of cancer cells in their blood may benefit from receiving more aggressive drug treatment for melanoma, a study published Friday by Clinical Cancer Research found. The cancer cells, called circulating tumor DNA, could be used as a biomarker -- an indicator of bodily processes -- to help select the most effective treatment for melanoma, the researchers, from Edith Cowan University in Australia, said. Advertisement "Selecting the right course of drugs and therapies to treat melanoma is extremely complex and relies on a number of factors, including the characteristics of the tumor and how it has spread throughout the body," study co-author Elin Gray, an assistant professor at the school, said in a statement. The discovery could improve melan...