Immunotherapy: Genetically Engineered T-Cells

Car T-cells are more formally known as chimeric antigen receptors. These cells are genetically modified t-cells that are designed to target tumor cells. These CAR t-cells work by circulating through the blood looking for cells that they can bind to. The receptors of these cells are specifically designed to recognize a pattern that is common cancer. Once they cell comes into contact with the specific receptor, cell will then attack and destroy the cancer, but also can tell the rest of the body that there is a problem. The additional hope is that the CAR-T cells will create memory cells within the body as a normal T-cell. In the simplest explanation, CAR-T cells are genetically modified to attack cells the body would otherwise not recognize.

It has targeted cells that work to kill and defend any pathogen or impurity that enters one’s body. In the case of cancers, a person’s cells grow abnormally forming a tumor. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells lose the ability to undergo apoptosis, cell death. Thus, one’s body harvests a tumor that most likely has a chance to spread and become deadly. Luckily, the biotech industry concocted innovative research that called for a new method of cancer treatment. Immunotherapy is designed to program one’s immune system to destroy and fight off the cancer. Originally, it has been mainly used for allergies. Dosages of medication or vaccinations are given to a patient to ensure that the immune system will not overreact to certain types of foreign substances. The therapy requires a drug that delivers an anticancer immune cell, specifically designed to attach on to the specific antigen that the tumor contains. According to scientist, immunotherapy gives patients “long term protection with reduced side effects against the cancer” (McGinley). The purpose of this treatment is to strengthen the immune system and specifically targets cancerous cells. Due to scientific research and the use of biotechnological methods, immunotherapy is able to prevent the threat of killing cells necessary to one’s body. Providing patients with a treatment that does not take a toll on their bodies, nor threaten to kill healthy cells is one relief the person

The research presented in Jedd D. Wolchok “Cancer’s Off Switch” examines two different forms of immunotherapy used to treat cancer cells by boosting the patient's own immune system defenses. The article provides a comprehensive history of the scientific discoveries and previous research that lead to the immunotherapy treatments, specifically the different levels of the immune system. In addition, the article addresses two different methods of immunotherapy currently in testing in clinical use. The research is educationally significant because it focuses on the body's internal defense system and attempts to disable the brakes cancer cells enforce on the immune system, which has shown progress in both tumor size regression and improvements in

Cancer immunotheraphy is a concept that has been around for centuries. Back in the 1800s, a bone surgeon named William Coley injected his patients with a vaccine consisting of killed bacteria hoping it would stimulate the body's defense system. During the 1990s, physicians treated people with cancer with a cytokine treatment. This treatment involved high amounts of interleuken-2 (IL-2) and interferon-γ (IFNγ), also known as inflammatory cytokines. These inflammatory cytokines were released by white blood cells that fight infection (T cells). However, this treatment can have very dangerous side effects such as vascular leakage and kidney damage, but some people that received the cytokine treatment have lived for decades. In the year of 1996,

According to Rosenberg (1988), the field of immunotherapy has become an area of significant and increasing interest within the field of medical science, prompted by the recent advances in knowledge of both biotechnology and cellular immunology. The field of immunology has produced revolutionary developments such as vaccines, which have prevented and decreased the occurrence of numerous infectious diseases over the past two centuries (Oviedo-Orta et al. 2013). Vaccine development has in turn combined immunology and drug design, resulting in a great deal of innovation over the last four decades endeavouring to expand the benefit of immunology past vaccines against foreign pathogens, and towards the treatment of chronic debilitating diseases.

Similarly to the development of theories of consciousness detailed in Miller's essay, time was needed in the case of immunotherapy between periods of discovery for the available technology to be able to support new discoveries and techniques. Coley first began his work with immunotherapy in 1891, Nixon declared cancer would be cured within a decade in 1971, and Hammer made Nixon's old and unfulfilled promise his new goal in 1988. However, the actual technology to make immunotherapy potentially viable did not exist during any of those periods. It was not until recently that the techniques thought essential to making the practice work were deemed to be in existence as, in 2011, Cheever said, “All of the components needed for effective immunotherapy have been invented,” (Groopman, 111). Thus, regardless of the quality of ideas and research surrounding immunotherapy, until quite recently it was not possible to execute those ideas in a manner conducive to effective treatments or

Inside the body, they encounter two situations, one where they meet healthy cells, and the other when they meet cancer cells. The interaction between the oncolytic virus and healthy cells is depicted in Figure 3.A and 3.B. The OV interacts with the normal cell; however, because of the modifications made to it, it is unable to infect the healthy cell, resulting in it eventually floating away in the bloodstream to find new cells. The oncolytic virus and a cancer cells’ interaction however is much more interesting and is depicted in Figure 2.C, 2.D and 2.E. When the oncolytic virus encounters a cancer cell, it immediately recognizes it and proceeds to infect it. The infection results in the genetic material of the virus being injected into the cancer cell. Thus, the cancer cell now has a new ‘information manual’ it can follow. The new information manual instructs the cancer cell to stop carrying out its own functions, and instead only make more copies of the oncolytic virus. Thus, as shown in Figure 2.I, the cancer cell gets filled with more and more of the oncolytic virus particles, until finally the cell does not have more space. At this point, like a balloon with too much air in it, the cell bursts, releasing the oncolytic virus particles into its surroundings. The oncolytic virus, now even larger in number flows through the bloodstream looking for more cancer cells to infect and repeats this process. The oncolytic virus is thus able to travel throughout the patient’s body, eliminating any cancer cells it encounters along the way. This article compares TCI to the use of OVs and discusses which one might be a better alternative. Although the patient’s body has less chance of rejecting T-cell therapy, oncolytic viruses can be delivered using vaccines, due to which they can travel via the bloodstream eliminating tumors anywhere in the

Many American’s receive flu vaccines annually and now studies have proven, cancer vaccines are possible too. A question that comes up to researchers quite often is; “How do these vaccines work?” The answers to these questions researchers say is actually quite simple, they say cancer vaccines work just like flu vaccines and are used to prevent cancer. These; however, are a bit different than a flu vaccine because they do not attack cancer cells directly, instead teach your body to fight off the viruses that could end up being cancerous.

Immunology basically involves understanding the immune system and how it responds to various disease conditions. the immune system consists of a number of components. Traditionally, it is divided into humoral and cellular immune responses. It can also be distinguished into innate and adaptive immunity. The innate immunity can discriminate between normal tissues , self and newly encountered non-self-proteins while the adaptive immunity is the more complex system aimed at the eradication of intracellular pathogens. To do this, antigen derived from such pathogens that are often new to the host organism, need to be recognised by receptor-bearing specialised immune cells which respond to a complex system of stimulatory and costimulatory signals. Better understanding of the human immune system has led to the identification of a number of tumor-associated antigens in the 1980s and the development of various immunotherapeutic approaches. In recent years, identification of the specific antigenic MHC class I epitopes, advancements in genetic engineering, gene delivery, and cell-based therapeutic approaches allowed development of the novel immunotherapeutics.

Immunotherapy: This treatment makes use of certain vaccines, antibodies, and growth factors to restore or boost the patient’s immune system to effectively fight against cancer.

The CCR5 co-receptor is not only the center of research with stem cell transplant, but has also been a recent target of gene therapy research. Gene therapy is a fairly new technology where genes (edited or normal) are transplanted in humans to produce a specific response.

A team of researchers from has found the possible key to create a vaccine for tuberculosis. In a partnership with Public Health England, the researchers discovered a way to trigger an immune response from unconventional T cells.

Malignant tumors have become a major problem in public health. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery have been the backbone of current treatment for many types of human cancer. Despite providing variably effective treatments in many cases, they are still hindered by the risk of cancer recurrence due to acquired chemo- or radio-resistance properties of some tumor cells especially tumor initiating cells [1, 2]. Recent advances in our understanding of immune system and its role in attacking tumor cells have expedited tumor control in the battle against cancer through activating immune responses [3]. Therefore, an emerging strategy in the treatment of cancers involves the stimulation of immune cells such as natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) [4]. Immunotherapy is theoretically very appealing especially for tumor initiating cells, because it offers the high level of specificity.

More recently, scientists have focused on ways to help the body's own immune cells seek and destroy cancer cells.

Cancer, a well known and feared aspect of today’s world, ha sheen discovered as a complex cell malfunction that has horribly affected humanity’s health and has greatly caused the death of millions worldwide. For this reason, cancer is considered “the second leading cause of death in the world after cardiovascular diseases” (History of Cancer). In the right conditions, “cancer develops when normal cells in a particular part of the body begin to grow out of control and destroy body tissue”(What is Cancer? and Cause of Cancer), and the “scary” aspect of cancer is that it’s growth never stops since every type of cancer goes through the same process: growth, division, re-division, and the process is continuous(What is Cancer? And Cause of Cancer) until treatment is done. Cancer causing viruses have also been discovered over the years by scientists as well. For this reason, treatment is so significant for the curing of one’s cancer and the saving of one’s life. Because of the fact that cancer can spread to almost every part of the human body through metastasis, malignant cells that spread to other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous surfaces, and because there are so many body parts, hundreds of cancers of been discovered overtime. Besides the fact that cancer spreads in one’s own body, the damaged DNA of a cancer cell(s) can be inherited by the person’s offspring. Most of the time, cancer is distinguished in the form of a solid tumor(s), which