Stem cells to mass-produce cancer-killing treatment

Monday, August 12, 2013

Stem cell technology can be used to mass-produce cancer-killing immune cells designed to target different kinds of tumour, scientists have shown.

By John von Radowitz

But in practice, T-cells that target and kill cancer cells while ignoring healthy cells are very rare, and progress towards immune-based cancer treatments has been limited.

The new approach provides a way to reprogramme T-cells and create large numbers of them off the shelf primed to attack specific cancers.

A small number of healthy human T-cells were first reprogrammed into malleable stem cells with embryonic properties, US scientists reported in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

These induced pluripotent stem cells were then engineered to produce a tumour-specific receptor molecule on their surfaces.

Finally, the stem cells were coaxed to reacquire their original T-cell properties while expanding to large numbers.

Each of the T-cells now had the all-important receptor that allowed it to target a particular cancer antigen or protein, in this case lymphoma.

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Stem cells to mass-produce cancer-killing treatment