cancer tumor Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Cancer Immunotherapy Pill Could Be On the Horizon

AHA Publisher — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 07:00:04 +0000

Brian Blum via Israel21c – Immunotherapy — activating the immune system to fight cancer — has been one of the most significant developments in the world of cancer treatment. But it still isn’t a cure-all, and scientists have been working to improve its delivery and efficacy. A recent breakthrough by Israeli and Portuguese scientists could result in cancer immunotherapy in a pill form that wouldn’t require a hospital stay or intravenous injection, would be less expensive, and may offer other benefits as well. Researchers at Tel Aviv University and the University of Lisbon, led in Israel by Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, head of the center for cancer biology research and the laboratory for cancer research and nanomedicine at TAU’s medical school, developed a synthetic molecule that is many magnitudes smaller than even the most advanced immunotherapy antibodies. The small size allows the molecule to penetrate and reach less accessible and less exposed areas of solid tumors. Moreover, unlike traditional immunotherapy antibodies, which have a hard time surviving the harsh acidity of the intestinal tract, the new molecules “have been designed especially to be resilient and not degrade in the gut, which opens up the exciting possibility of giving them orally,” explains Satchi-Fainaro. Most immunotherapy medications must travel through blood vessels to reach the tumor. The new tiny molecules can find their way to the target by diffusion without needing the “road” of blood vessels. The small synthetic molecules also would be much less expensive to produce at large scale than are today’s biological-based immunotherapy drugs, potentially enabling many more people to access immunotherapy. “We have already synthesized the small molecule with simple equipment, in a short time and at a fraction of the cost,” Satchi-Fainaro notes. Allowing patients to take the drug orally at home will also bring down the price by eliminating hospital costs. As described in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, the team has tested the molecule in vitro as well as on a human tumor in a special lab model, but not yet with actual patients. A commercial product is still years away, as further development and human testing is needed. ISRAEL21c has written about Satchi-Fainaro’s research on numerous occasions. She was featured in our article on bio-convergence. More recently, she has identified ways to treat melanoma and glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. The current research was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (FCT-MCTES), the Israeli Ministry of Health, La Caixa Foundation, Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro, the ERC, the Israel Science Foundation, the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Israel Cancer Research Fund Professorship Award and the Morris Kahn Foundation. To read the original article click here.

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New Cancer Treatment Fools the Immune System to Attack

AHA Publisher — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 07:00:48 +0000

Brian Blum via Israel21c – Immunotherapy holds perhaps the greatest promise for fighting cancer in the 21st century. Rather than bombarding the body with toxic chemicals, as in chemotherapy, immunotherapy utilizes the immune system to neutralize malignant tumors. The only problem: It only works in about 20 percent of patients with solid tumors. The reason is straightforward, but still represents a vexing roadblock for cancer researchers: Tumors are not an infection coming from outside but an internal malfunction of the body’s own cells, which begin to replicate out of control. “Cancer looks like us. It’s hard for the immune system to identify,” explains Dr. Asher Nathan, CEO of NeoTX, a Rehovot-based startup developing a novel way of knocking out tumors – by coating them in bacteria. “Unlike with cancer, our bodies are finely tuned to attack bacteria,” Nathan says. “Bacteria is a billion years old. Our immune systems have had a long time to figure out how to effectively neutralize bacterial infections. That’s why you don’t wake up in the morning with a cold and think, ‘I’m going to die.’” Cancer, of course, is a very different story. Compared with bacteria, “cancerous tumors are like the new kid on the block,” Nathan notes. NeoTX is not Nathan’s first foray into medical technology; after immigrating to Israel 40 years ago from Chicago, he founded IntelliGene and EvoRX, two biotech companies formed around technologies he invented. For NeoTX, Nathan identified and licensed a drug developed by the Swedish company Active Biotech called naptumomab estafenatox (NAP). NAP is composed of two proteins: a genetically modified “superantigen” and an antibody that latches onto a tumor via a molecule called 5T4 found primarily on tumors. A superantigen is a bacterial derivative that elicits a strong antibacterial immune response. NeoTX calls its technology “Tumor-Targeted Superantigen” or TTS. Once NAP’s 5T4 antibody has attached itself to a tumor, the superantigen “reprograms” the immune system to mount an antibacterial response against the bacteria as well as the tumor. “The concept behind this drug is, let’s coat the tumor with a bacterial molecule so that the immune system will go into ‘Defcon 1’ and attack the tumor as if it’s bacteria,” Nathan says. The Secret Weapon Once the immune system knows what to look for, it sends in the body’s secret weapon: killer T-cells. The T-cells identify the bacteria-coated tumors, then start to create an army of cells primed to attack any superantigens they find. Nathan recommends the video below to see how T-cells work; they “grope around like a blind robot” and after hitting a superantigen, punch a hole in the cell … then insert a molecule that causes the cell to explode.” It’s a fine balance. When fighting a bacterial infection, “the body can go crazy,” Nathan notes. “You can get a high fever that exhausts the immune system. That’s how the bacteria continue to fight. We genetically engineered our superantigen to be safer. It doesn’t generate as strong a response, but it still creates a very powerful immune reaction.” Targeting bacteria is smart for another reason: Part of how tumors succeed in evading the body’s defenses is by releasing chemicals that weaken the immune response. “Anything we do nearby the tumor becomes problematic,” Nathan says. But with NAP, “the tumor-killing T-cells are created far from the immune-suppressed tumor site.” Only then do they begin their journey to seek out and destroy the tumors. Moreover, when the immune system encounters a superantigen bound to a tumor, it modifies the suppressive micro-environment around the tumor so that the body’s natural defenses are better able to kill it. “This creates a natural, holistic and profound immune response,” Nathan says. Reboots the Immune System But the best may be yet to come. “When we’ve tested this drug in animals, we find that even when you try to reintroduce cancers into, say, a mouse that’s been cured by the technology, it doesn’t stick,” Nathan says. “None of the mice that were ‘rechallenged’ got cancer again. The drug ‘wakes up’ the immune system – at least in mice – and we don’t need any more drug.” Nathan likens it to the reboot function on a computer. “The drug reboots the immune system so it can do what it natively needs to do – remove the suppressive environment and kill as many tumor cells as possible. Then, the T-cells can go after more targets.” NeoTX’s bacterial coating approach is currently in a Phase I trial in Israel and, based on encouraging results, has begun a Phase 2 trial in the United States with 30 patients. One patient has non-small cell lung cancer that had metastasized to the liver. “That’s a death sentence, usually within four months,” Nathan says. The patient received NeoTX’s drug over a decade ago (prior to it being licensed from Active Biotech). “She lived for 11 years and died of something else, not her cancer.” NAP plays particularly well with checkpoint inhibitors, another type of cancer treatment that aims to tamp down “checkpoints” created by the cancer that essentially trick the T-cells into thinking the tumor is a friend. “It’s like a secret handshake in a college fraternity,” Nathan quips. If the handshake were inhibited, so to speak, the T-cells would see the tumor for what it is – very much not a friend – and could attack. Combining NAP with a checkpoint inhibitor “allows our drug to kill more tumor cells,” Nathan says. AstraZeneca Collaboration Pharma giant AstraZeneca is collaborating with NeoTX on the former’s own checkpoint inhibitor technology. The hope is that patients who don’t normally respond will have greater success in beating back their cancers. Developing and commercializing any new drug can take up to 15 years and many millions of dollars. NeoTX has raised around $80 million so far. Nathan is optimistic that if NAP passes Phase 2 and 3 trials, it could hit the market as early as 2027. While the technology has so far been tested on solid lung, esophageal and urethral cancer tumors, patients with blood cancer such as lymphoma and leukemia could benefit, too – in particular those who are candidates for CAR-T, a promising treatment that involves removing T-cells from a patient, engineering them for maximum killing ability in a lab, then reinjecting them. CAR-T, a form of immunotherapy, tends to work well for blood cancers but poorly for solid tumors. That’s another aim for NeoTX – to provide a pharmaceutical complement that will allow CAR-T to be effective outside the blood cancer domain. Immunotherapy has become a crowded field. “If you look at all the companies that are trying to elicit an immune system response, there are probably 1,000 out there. But for the specific mechanism we’re trying, it’s zero,” Nathan notes. “One of our investors said to us, ‘You’re either geniuses or you’re crazy.’ I replied, ‘What makes you think it’s one or the other?’” NeoTX has no shortage of geniuses. Roger Kornberg, the 2006 winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, is the company’s chief scientist (as well as a long-time collaborator with Nathan in his previous endeavors). Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel, who shared a Nobel in chemistry in 2013, are advisers. Dr. Marcel Rozencweig, a medical oncologist and 18-year veteran of pharma company Bristol Myers Squibb, where he was head of global oncology, is NeoTX’s president. Recently, the head of global clinical oncology at Bayer pharmaceuticals, Dr. Scott Fields, joined NeoTX as chief medical officer. “It is extremely rare that someone as high up as Scott Fields would leave pharma to work in such a small company,” Nathan tells ISRAEL21c. “It is even more rare that he would come to a company based in Israel.” Cancer, sadly, isn’t going away anytime soon. “The average person develops around five cancerous or pre-cancerous cells a day,” Nathan notes. “Our bodies are very efficient at killing, such that most people don’t get a new cancer every day. Our drug could level the playing field so the body can do what it’s meant to.” For more information, click here To read the original article click here.

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Anti-Malaria Drug Fights Cancer, 9 Peer-Reviewed Studies Suggest

AHA Publisher — Wed, 11 May 2022 07:00:55 +0000

Sara Middleton via NaturalHealth365 – Can a cheap drug used to fight malaria have a protective effect against cancer? As it turns out, data from at least nine peer-reviewed studies say yes. The drug in question? None other than ivermectin has gained much notoriety thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns about widespread suppression of early treatments for the viral illness. Nobel Prize-Winning Drug, Considered One of the World’s “Essential Medicines” by the World Health Organization, Also Shows Promise in the Fight Against Cancer Ivermectin certainly became a household name during the pandemic, thanks largely to early laboratory research showing that the drug could inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2. While these findings – featured in a June 2020 study by Caly et al. published in Antiviral Research – involved Petri dishes only, the researchers’ work was corroborated with plenty of real-world clinical evidence, as doctors worldwide began treating their COVID-19 positive patients with ivermectin. The treatment appeared to be a great success, at least before health officials began prohibiting or otherwise disincentivizing these doctors from prescribing the drug. However, the apparent success of ivermectin in treating a viral illness like COVID-19 isn’t unusual when we consider the history of the drug. The drug first made the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines in 1987 for its effectiveness against onchocerciasis or river blindness. Ivermectin also has uses against other parasitic diseases, including lymphatic filariasis, strongyloidiasis, trichuriasis, ascariasis, hookworm diseases, scabies, and ancylostomiasis. (Scientists Satoshi Omura and William Campbell were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for their work in using ivermectin to treat roundworms.) Research – including a study published in the April 2020 edition of The Lancet Infectious Diseases – also finds that ivermectin appears to have anti-malarial benefits. But the benefits don’t stop there. Rounded up nicely in an article published on April 15, 2022, on the website Cancer.news, at least nine peer-reviewed studies show that ivermectin may be able to fight off cancer cells. Among the studies is a 2017 paper from Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, which found that ivermectin could suppress kidney tumor growth while concurrently offering a protective effect on healthy kidney cells. In the Fight Against Cancer, Will Affordable Drug Options Remain Available? A growing body of research shows early support for ivermectin in the treatment of a wide variety of cancers, including kidney, breast, intestinal, lung, colorectal, esophageal, and ovarian cancers. Experts agree that ivermectin appears to have a generally good safety profile. However, as with any drug, ivermectin does have a risk of side effects, including dizziness, vomiting, stomach pain, bloating, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, weakness, fatigue, uncontrollable shaking, and chest discomfort. The drug’s package insert also warns against the use of ivermectin during pregnancy (Pregnancy Category C), in part because there are “no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women” (nor in pediatric kids weighing less than 15kg, for that matter). The drug is also excreted in breastmilk. Contraindications notwithstanding, it remains to be seen whether the medical and scientific communities will further study this compound for its use against cancer. Then again, the skeptics among us will say that the drug is incredibly inexpensive compared to other conventional cancer treatments … so why would conventional healthcare providers pass on the opportunity to drive profits with pricier care? Sources for this article include: NIH.gov FDA.gov Cancer.news NIH.gov Medlineplus.gov Essentialmeds.org NIH.gov USAtoday.com To read the original article click here.

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Vitamin E Can Boost Immunotherapy Responses by Reinvigorating Dendritic Cells

AHA Publisher — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 07:00:47 +0000

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center via Newswise – HOUSTON ― Combining a retrospective analysis of clinical records with in-depth laboratory studies, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that vitamin E can enhance immunotherapy responses by stimulating the activity of dendritic cells in the tumor. The findings were published today in Cancer Discovery. The researchers demonstrated that vitamin E directly binds and blocks the activity of the SHP1 checkpoint protein in dendritic cells, which increases antigen presentation and primes T cells for an anti-tumor immune response. The results point to possible new therapeutic approaches to improve immunotherapy outcomes, including combinations with vitamin E as well as directly targeting SHP1 in dendritic cells. “This study broadens our understanding of factors that can influence responses to immunotherapies,” said corresponding author Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D., chair ad interim of Molecular & Cellular Oncology. “We demonstrated that vitamin E can reinvigorate dendritic cell antigen presentation via the inhibition of SHP1. These results indicate that vitamin E-treated or SHP1-silenced dendritic cells and dendritic cell-derived extracellular vesicles could be developed as potent immunotherapies for future clinical applications.” Vitamin E Connected With Improved Immunotherapy Responses Immune checkpoint inhibitors, a type of immunotherapy, provide long-lasting responses for many patients with cancer, but not all benefit. There is a need to understand these varied responses in order to improve outcomes for more patients. Dietary supplements are thought to boost immunity, but little is known about the effects of supplements on immunotherapy activity. To explore the connection, the researchers performed a retrospective analysis of clinical data from MD Anderson patients treated with immunotherapy. Patients with melanoma who took vitamin E while on anti-PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors had significantly improved survival compared to patients who didn’t take vitamin E or multivitamins. This finding was replicated in an independent mixed cohort of patients with breast, colon and kidney cancers. However, patients taking vitamin E while being treated with chemotherapy did not experience the same benefits, suggesting the effects were unique to chemotherapy. Next, the researchers demonstrated that vitamin E enhanced responses to checkpoint inhibitors in immunogenic mouse models of breast cancer and melanoma. However, models with low levels of tumor-infiltrating dendritic cells did not benefit from vitamin E, suggesting the effects were dependent on these cells. Deciphering the Effects of Vitamin E on Dendritic Cells Dendritic cells are a specific class of immune cells responsible for presenting abnormal proteins — called antigens — to prime T cells, which is an essential step in the anti-tumor immune response. However, tumor-associated dendritic cells can become dysfunctional due to suppressive signals in the tumor microenvironment. The researchers demonstrated that the vitamin E treatment led to upregulation of several activation markers on the dendritic cells. Additionally, dendritic cells from tumors treated with vitamin E promoted more T cell proliferation relative to controls, suggesting vitamin E enhanced the priming step. Through molecular and structural studies, the researchers discovered that vitamin E enters dendritic cells and binds to the SHP1 protein — which acts as a checkpoint to regulate dendritic cell activity — to block its activity and enhance dendritic cells’ functionality to prime T cells. Blocking SHP1 genetically mimicked the results with vitamin E, leading to increased antigen presentation that stimulated T cell anti-tumor responses. Similarly, blocking SHP1 enhanced antigen presentation in extracellular vesicles released by dendritic cells – another important mode of communication between dendritic cells and T cells. Targeting SHP1 May Be a Novel Therapeutic Strategy As vitamin E appears to improve the antigen presentation of dendritic cells, the researchers investigated whether vitamin E could enhance responses from therapies known to release tumor antigens and recruit dendritic cell infiltration. Laboratory findings demonstrated that vitamin E treatment could augment the effects of cancer vaccines and immunogenic chemotherapies combined with checkpoint inhibitors, including in a model of immunotherapy-resistant pancreatic cancer. “SHP1 is an attractive target to effectively activate dendritic cells for the development of potent immunotherapy,” said lead author Xiangliang Yuan, Ph.D., research scientist in Molecular & Cellular Oncology. “This work yielded important insights on the interaction between vitamin E and SHP1 that will guide us to develop more specific allosteric SHP1 inhibitors. Compellingly, it appears that unleashing dendritic cells by inhibiting SHP1 may be an advantageous strategy to enhance antitumor immunity.” The research team is now exploring opportunities with clinical collaborators at MD Anderson to prospectively evaluate the effects of vitamin E in combination with checkpoint inhibitors and other immunotherapies. Team members also are exploring opportunities to develop a targeted SHP1 inhibitor as well as SHP1-modified dendritic cells and dendritic cell-derived extracellular vesicles as novel future therapeutic options. To read the original article click here.

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Targeted Drug Combination Shows Unprecedented Activity in Some Highly Aggressive Brain Tumors

AHA Publisher — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 08:00:09 +0000

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute via Newswise – A combination of two targeted cancer drugs showed unprecedented, “clinically meaningful” activity in patients with highly malignant brain tumors that carried a rare genetic mutation, according to a clinical trial report by investigators from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The drug combination, which blocked an overactive cell-growth signaling pathway, shrank tumors by 50% or more in one-third of 45 patients with hard-to-treat high-grade gliomas, including glioblastomas, the most aggressive brain tumor. The patients were selected for the trial because their tumors carried a genetic mutation known as v600E in the BRAF gene. This mutation is found in only two to three percent of patients with high-grade gliomas but is found in up to 60% of certain types of low-grade gliomas. The study included 13 patients with low-grade gliomas. Of those patients, nine had an objective response to treatment with the drug combination, for a response rate of 69%. “This is the first time that any targeted drug has been shown to work in glioblastoma in a clinical trial,” said Patrick Wen, MD, first author of the report in The Lancet Oncology and director of the Center for Neuro-Oncology at Dana-Farber. With all current chemotherapy treatments for glioblastomas, the response rate is no better than five per cent, he said, which contrasts with the 33 percent response rate achieved by the combination. The response rate was even higher – about 40 % – in patients younger than 40 years of age, according to Wen. The two drugs paired in the study were dabrafenib and trametinib. Both drugs target proteins in the MAPK pathway, a signaling chain of proteins that acts as a switch for cell growth and can become stuck in the “on” position, causing uncontrolled growth leading to tumors. Three patients had complete responses – their tumors no longer could be seen on imaging scan – and 12 had partial shrinkage of their tumors. The patients were not cured, but those who responded to the drugs experienced remarkably durable benefits – by one assessment, the median duration of response was 13.6 months, and by another assessment, it was 36.9 months. The findings are from an ongoing phase 2 study called ROAR (Rare Oncology Agnostic Research) that has been enrolling patients since 2014 in 27 community and academic cancer centers in 13 countries. The study is a so-called “basket” trial, which seeks to enroll patients who share a common tumor characteristic – in this case the BRAF v600E mutation – although they may have an array of different cancers. The ROAR study includes patients with thyroid and biliary tract cancers, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, hairy cell leukemia, multiple myeloma, low- and high-grade glioma brain tumors, and others. The study is designed to determine the overall response rate of dabrafenib combined with trametinib in patients with BRAF V600E-mutated cancers. The BRAF protein is a growth signaling protein kinase that plays a role in regulating the MAPK signaling pathway. BRAF V600E mutations drive cancer by activating the MAPK pathway, which is made up of many proteins, resulting in uncontrolled cell growth and the development of a tumor. The drugs used in this study, dabrafenib and trametinib, are oral drugs that block parts of the overactive MAPK signaling pathway. Dabrafenib inhibits an enzyme, B-Raf, and trametinib inhibits molecules called MEK1 and MEK2, which are part of the MAPK pathway. They have been used in combination to treat melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, and thyroid cancer. Gliomas are cancer that originate in the glia – the supporting cells of the brain – not the brain neurons themselves. Gliomas comprise about 80 percent of all malignant brain tumors. Some are slow-growing low-grade gliomas, while others are aggressive high-grade gliomas including glioblastomas that are difficult to remove and almost always recur. No important advances in treating gliomas in recent years, the authors of the report said, but there have been isolated reports of the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib showing activity in gliomas. Their report from the ROAR study “is the first time that a combination of BRAF inhibitor (dabrafenib) and a MEK inhibitor (trametinib) have shown notable activity in these difficult-to-treat gliomas, including glioblastomas which have historically shown resistance to therapies.” Although the drugs only helped patients whose tumors carried the rare V600E mutation, Wen said the results were encouraging “because people were starting to think you will never have any targeted therapies for glioblastoma.” He added that there is emerging evidence that there may be other targets in gliomas that could be blocked by designer drugs. To read the original article click here.

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UC Researchers Engineer New Probiotic to Target and Break Down Cancer Cell Defenses

AHA Publisher — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 08:00:36 +0000

University of Cincinnati via News-Medical – Bacteria generally have a bad reputation, as people first think of certain strains that can cause serious illnesses like pneumonia or meningitis. However, there are many helpful bacteria, known as probiotics, that assist the body in different ways. University of Cincinnati researchers have now engineered a probiotic designed to target and break down cancer cell defenses, giving therapies an easier way inside to kill tumors. The findings were recently published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. Nalinikanth Kotagiri, PhD, the senior author of this study, an assistant professor in UC’s James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy and a UC Cancer Center member, studies “solid cancers” or those defined as abnormal cellular growths in “solid” organs such as the breast or prostate, as opposed to leukemia, a cancer affecting the blood. Kotagiri explains many solid cancers have an extracellular matrix made up of collagen and hyaluronic acid. The matrix forms a barrier around the cells and makes it harder for antibodies and immune cells to reach the tumors. Shindu Thomas, the first author of this study and a graduate student in the Kotagiri lab, worked with E. coli Nissle, a bacteria that has been used as a probiotic for around 100 years and is different from E. coli strains that cause sickness. Through new technology, any protein or enzyme can be manufactured on the E. coli Nissle bacteria. In this case, the bacteria was engineered to secrete an abundance of smaller structures called outer membrane vesicles on the outer edge of cells. The vesicles carry the same materials present on the bacteria itself, so researchers designed the bacteria to carry an enzyme that breaks down cancers’ extracellular matrix. Kotagiri said bacteria tend to thrive in low-oxygen and immunodeficient environments, two characteristics found in solid cancers. Because of this, the specially designed bacteria are naturally drawn to these cancers. “We took advantage of this unique feature of E.coli Nissle to home and localize into these tumors. And then once bacteria are lodged there, they start making nanoscale vesicles which carry the enzyme much deeper into the tumor matrix.” Nalinikanth Kotagiri, PhD, senior author of the study After creating the new probiotic, researchers studied the bacteria’s effect on animal models of breast and colon cancer. The bacteria is delivered intravenously about four or five days prior to the cancer treatment, allowing the bacteria time to populate and break down the cancer’s defenses and prepare it to take to the treatment. After administering the bacteria and then subsequent doses of either immunotherapy or another pharmaceutical, drugs used in targeted therapy, Kotagiri said mice survived twice as long compared to those given the cancer therapy alone. Imaging showed the bacteria and enzyme were effective at breaking down the extracellular matrix and allowing the therapy to reach the cancer cells. The study found the bacteria affected the tumors but was not attacking healthy cells in other organs like the heart, lungs, liver and brain. Kotagiri said this shows the bacteria can be safe and will not cause infection in other parts of the body, but more research needs to be done to examine its safety in large animal models and potentially humans, particularly in immunodeficient environments. “This always comes with a word of caution as to how you can utilize this strategy without causing any sepsis or any overt infections in the body,” he said. Kotagiri said his lab began to look more closely at how bacterial probiotics can address biomedical problems around 2018, as there are about one to two times as many bacterial cells than human cells in your body at any given time. “There’s bacteria in the gut, on the skin, inside your lungs, inside your mouth, even inside tumors,” Kotagiri said. “So why not take advantage of that and find interesting ways to make them a bit more proactive?” If the engineered bacteria continues to prove itself safe and effective, Kotagiri said there are a wide variety of ways to engineer the bacteria for different uses, including potentially using the bacteria to treat disease conditions in the gut, mouth and skin. There is also potential to engineer the bacteria armed with multiple proteins and molecules to make a monotherapy platform (or therapy that uses one type of treatment) rather than just facilitating combination therapy, he said. “So the bacteria can essentially serve as a mothership that would carry the necessary therapeutic payload to unique niches in the body and from there it’s a self-sustaining entity,” Kotagiri said. “While the possibilities are endless there are also significant challenges. We have to be good stewards of making that kind of evidence possible for the community to understand what are the limits and what can be done.” To read the original article click here.

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New Study Offers Possible Immunotherapy Breakthrough for Cancer

AHA Publisher — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 07:00:40 +0000

Jon Schiller via Israel21c – For cancer immunotherapy to be most effective, a patient’s immune system must be able to “see” the tumor in question. “Hotspots” on cancer cells’ outer membranes can provide this service. These molecular structures contain mutated peptides called neoantigens that the immune system’s T cells recognize as foreign – the first step in binding to the neoantigens and killing the cancerous cells. But only a handful of neoantigens qualify as hotspots. And they are hard to find because they are presented to the immune system by protein complexes that come in thousands of versions. The Weizmann Institute of Science’s Prof. Yardena Samuels and her PhD student Aviyah Peri led a team using bioinformatics to develop a method for identifying features common to many tumors. This can help develop effective immunotherapy for entire groups of patients. Their findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The scientists applied algorithms to search through international databases of the genomes of thousands of cancer patients. Focusing on melanoma, the main cancer type studied by the Samuels lab, they looked for common mutations presented by common protein complexes. The search produced several neoantigens that could potentially be considered hotspots. Next, the scientists subjected these candidate molecules to laboratory analysis and investigated their interactions with T cells. Using this approach, the scientists identified a hotspot neoantigen derived from an oncogene known as RAS, which is involved in a third of all human cancers and 20% of melanoma cases. They and their colleagues isolated the T cell receptor that can recognize this hotspot neoantigen in melanoma tumors. They then engineered T cells from healthy individuals to express this receptor and incubated them with tumor samples from patients whose tumors displayed this hotspot. The T cells killed only those cells that displayed the neoantigen. “We’ve uncovered a neoantigen that is expressed in thousands of new melanoma cases every year, and we’ve shown that it can be used in these patients to mark tumor cells for immune destruction,” Peri said. “Our study suggests that our newly developed platform can lead to ‘off-the-shelf’ immunotherapies in which T cell receptors that recognize cancer hotspots can be prepared in advance, ready to be applied in groups of patients whose tumors have been shown to harbor these hotspots,” said Samuels. Also participating in the study were the late Prof. Nir Friedman of Weizmann’s Immunology Department, Prof. Masha Y. Niv of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. Steven A. Rosenberg of the US National Cancer Institute, Prof. Cyrille J. Cohen of Bar-Ilan University, Dr. Ansuman T. Satpathy of Stanford University School of Medicine and other researchers. To read the original article click here.

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Prevent Breast Cancer with THESE Powerful Plant Compounds

AHA Publisher — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 07:00:05 +0000

Wendy Miller via NaturalHealth365 – Breast cancer is one of the most deadly forms of cancer for women. It can also occur in men, as well. It is also one of the most treatable when caught in its earliest stages, for as deadly as it is. For many years, studies have proven that there are many powerful plant phytonutrients and adaptogenic herbs that can fight breast cancer and play a role in putting it into remission. The ironic thing is, doctors try and steer you away from these natural cancer warriors by telling you to avoid them in your diet. Incredible Plant Compounds Reduce Tumor Size and Eradicate Cancer Cells, According to Study Phytonutrients are potent plant compounds that work to promote better health once they are brought into the body. Phytonutrients include antioxidants, indoles, and glucosinolates. These three compounds especially have been proven to both prevent cancer and attack cancer cells in the body. In addition, studies have proven that they can reduce the size of tumors and even eradicate cancer cells from the body. They are especially beneficial in decreasing the number of cancer-related hormones within the body. These Plants Are a Powerhouse of Phytonutrients Phytonutrients also referred to as phytochemicals, are found in all types of plant foods, not just fruits and vegetables. Isoflavones, for example, are found in soy products. Despite its phytonutrient content, stay away from traditionally-grown soy, and make sure you buy organic varieties only. Inositol is present in most grains, including wheat, rice, corn, nuts, and soybeans. Polyphenols (resveratrol and ellagic acid) are found in many different foods, including citrus fruits, grapes, berries, green tea, whole grains, and many types of berries. In addition, carotenoids and flavonoids have been proven to inhibit or prevent the growth of many different types of cancer cells. Here Is How These Chemical Compounds Fight Against Breast Cancer Phytonutrients can support the body by providing the nutritional compounds it needs to fight against invading cells that destroy tissues and wreak havoc. When cells mutate into cancer cells that grow into larger tumors, the phytonutrients can damage those cells so they can no longer impact the body negatively. Phytonutrients can attack tumors, causing them to shrink and eventually disappear. In addition to attacking cancer cells, phytonutrients also boost the body’s immune system so that it can better recover when cancers attempt to take over. Choose Whole Foods Instead of Supplements While phytonutrients and other plant compounds can be found in supplements, they are much more effective if you get them through whole foods. Including whole foods in your diet will not only provide you with the vitamins and minerals your body needs to remain strong and healthy, but you will also get the essential plant compounds or phytonutrients your body needs to use as weapons against cancer cells and other toxic elements. Phytonutrients are the most powerful plant compounds available when it comes to cancer-fighting tools you have at your disposal. Including them in your diet will help you lower your risk of breast cancer, as well as many other cancers, whether they are hormone-related or not. Eating a diet full of whole foods is the best way to prevent cancer and even eliminate cancer once it appears. Sources for this article include: NIH.gov NIH.gov MedicalNewsToday.com BreastCancer.org Environhealthprevmed.biomedcentral.com MDAnderson.org Stanfordhealthcare.org Webmd.com To read the original article click here.

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New AI-Based Tool Improves the Diagnosis of Breast Cancer Tumors

AHA Publisher — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 07:00:11 +0000

Karolinska Institute via News-Medical – Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed an AI-based tool that improves the diagnosis of breast cancer tumors and the ability to predict the risk of recurrence. The greater diagnostic precision can lead to more personalized treatment for the large group of breast cancer patients with intermediate risk tumors. The results are published in the scientific journal Annals of Oncology. Every year, around two million women globally develop breast cancer. In the diagnostic procedure, tissue samples of the tumor are analyzed and graded by a pathologist and categorized by risk as low (grade 1), medium (grade 2) or high (grade 3). This helps the doctor determine the most suitable treatment for the patient. “Roughly half of breast cancer patients have a grade 2 tumor, which unfortunately gives no clear guidance on how the patient is to be treated. Consequently, some of the patients are over-treated with chemotherapy while others risk being under-treated. It’s this problem that we’ve tried to resolve.” Yinxi Wang, Study First Author and Doctoral Student, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute Hospitals have recently started to make limited use of molecular diagnostics to improve the precision of breast cancer risk assessment, but these methods are often costly and time-consuming. The researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now developed and evaluated an AI (artificial intelligence)-based method for tissue analysis. The study shows that the AI-based method can further divide the patients with grade 2 tumors into two sub-groups, one high-risk and one low-risk, that are clearly distinguishable in terms of the recurrence risk. “One big advantage of the method is that it’s cost-effective and fast, since it’s based on microscope images of dyed tissue samples, which is already part of hospital procedure,” says co-last author Johan Hartman, professor of pathology at the Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, and pathologist at the Karolinska University Hospital. “It enables us to offer this type of diagnosis to more people and improves our ability to give the right treatment to any one patient.” The AI model has been trained to recognize characteristics of high-resolution microscopic images from patients classified with grade 1 and grade 3 tumors. The study is based on an extensive microscopic image bank of 2,800 tumors. “It’s fantastic that deep learning can help us develop models that don’t just reproduce what specialist doctors do today, but also enable us to extract information beyond the scope of the human eye,” says co-last author Mattias Rantalainen, associate professor and research group leader at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet. The method is not yet ready for clinical application, but a regulatorily approved product is under development by a newly started company, Stratipath AB, which is supported by KI Innovations. The researchers will now be further evaluating the method with the aim to have a product out on the market by 2022. To read the original article click here.

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