A new experimental vaccine may offer hope to patients with the incurable brain tumor glioblastoma.
The dual-action injection – previously only tested in mice – eliminates existing tumors and prevents the cancer from returning in the future.
Experts take live pieces of tumor from patients and reprogram them to attack the glioblastoma before injecting it back into the body. From there, the newly formed living cancer cells make a straight line to the original tumor, allowing the immune system to mark and remember them along the way.
Although only tested on animals, the injection offers hope for treating a deadly cancer that will kill almost all patients within five years. Beau, President Biden’s son, died of glioblastoma in 2015 at the age of just 46. Senator John McCain died in 2018, just a year after his diagnosis.
The new vaccine works in 4 steps: First, cancer cells are removed from the tumor; Second, the cells are reengineered by gene mutation using CRISPR technology to produce a tumor-killing agent and express factors that allow the immune system to better recognize and mark them; Third, the cells are reintroduced and begin to migrate through the brain to the tumor site, creating a strong immune response. Eventually, the tumor shrinks as a result of the two-pronged attack
Glioblastoma are stage 4 malignant tumors that develop deep in the brain and spinal cord.
Their rapid growth and invasion of surrounding brain tissue make 100% removal almost impossible, while the changing nature of tumor cells over time makes treatment incredibly difficult.
The new vaccine is the result of years of careful research by a laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts.
The treatments work by extracting living tumor cells from a glioblastoma and turning them into powerful, cancer-fighting killers.
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Most cancer vaccines in production use inactivated cancer particles to help the immune system recognize and destroy them.
But the new shot turns living cells into tumor killers This both destroys active tumor cells and allows the immune system to remember how to attack them next time.
This method uses the unique ability of active cancer cells to travel great distances through the brain to return to the location of their fellow tumor cells, just as homing pigeons return to their roost.
The transplanted cells will be transformed using CRISPR technology, a gene editor that has allowed the team to reprogram the cells to release a tumor-killing agent.
The lab also conditioned the tumor cells express factors that make them more recognizable to the immune system, allowing it to mark and remember them.
The patient’s immune system is thus primed for a long-lasting antitumor response.
Once packaged into a vaccine, the team tested it on mice with cells of human origin, mimicking how it would work in humans.
Dr. Khalid Shah, one of the makers of the injection, said: “Our team came up with a simple idea: take cancer cells and turn them into cancer killers and vaccines.
“Using genetic engineering, we are repurposing cancer cells to develop a therapeutic agent that kills tumor cells and stimulates the immune system to both destroy primary tumors and prevent cancer.”
The team’s results will be published in Science Translational Medicine in this week.
This is because a number of new vaccines are showing promising results in trials.
Moderna’s new cancer vaccine uses the same mRNA technology as its Covid vaccine, using bits of genetic code from patients’ tumors to effectively teach the body to fight cancer.
The injection combined with an immunotherapy drug reduced the likelihood of recurrence or death in postoperative melanoma patients by 44 percent compared to the drug alone.
Another recent cancer breakthrough took all 10 participants of a last resort in the Mount Sinai study just a few years to achieve complete or partial remission.
The vaccine they received was injected directly into the tumor itself, melting it and teaching the body to find and kill cancer cells that had spread elsewhere.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
