• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Tuesday, August 5, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Cancer immunotherapy target helps fight solid tumors

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
February 18, 2020
in Science News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Solid tumors are notoriously hard to treat with immunotherapy, but new research provides a target for disarming these cancers and ramping up the immune response against them

IMAGE

Credit: Image courtesy of ZeNan Chang.


SAN DIEGO, CA – Yvonne Chen engineers immune cells to target their most evasive enemy: cancer. New cancer immunotherapies generate immune cells that are effective killers of blood cancers, but they have a hard time with solid tumors. Chen, Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, is designing ways for immune cells to “outsmart” solid tumors. She will present her research on Tuesday, February 18, at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Diego, California.

T cells, which are a type of white blood cells, patrol and attack invaders to our bodies, but they also need to avoid assault on our own cells, which is one of the ways cancers are able to “hide” from the immune system. Solid tumors, cancers that form a mass in the body, make up 90% of cancer cases and can even inactivate immune cells. These tumors can surround themselves in a protein called transforming growth factor beta (TGF?β), which suppresses the activity of T cells in the tumor environment. Chen found a way to help T cells turn TGF?β back on tumor cells.

T cells can be engineered to produce receptors known as chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), which are designed to recognize tumor-associated proteins known as antigens. Upon encountering cells that present the target antigen, CAR-T cells can latch onto the target cell and kill it. T cells engineered to express CARs that target CD19, an antigen found on B cells, have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of B-cell leukemia and lymphoma.

Although CD19 CAR-T cell therapy has shown promising clinical results, sometimes through the course of treatment, a population of cancer cells without CD19 emerge. “Clinical trials have shown that 50% of lymphoma patients treated with CD19 CAR-T cell therapy would relapse within 6 months, and many of those cases involve tumor cells that no longer express CD19,” Chen said. To circumvent this, Chen engineered T cells that target both CD19 and CD20, reducing the possibility that any cancer cells will evade treatment. This bispecific CAR-T cell therapy is now being tested in a phase-1 clinical trial at UCLA.

In addition to blood cancers, solid tumors have been the focus of much ongoing research activity in the Chen Lab. “Immunotherapy works well against blood tumors, but hasn’t worked as well against solid tumors, in part because of TGF?β-induced immunosuppression,” Chen said. Her new approach with a CAR engineered against TGF?β is a promising start targeting solid tumors. “TGF?β CAR has shown the potential to safely and effectively boost the anti?tumor efficacy of T?cell therapy.”

Chen and colleagues made CARs that respond to TGF?β by ramping up their defenses. “Instead of responding to TGF?β by shutting down, T cells that express the TGF-β-responsive CAR would be geared up to encounter and attack a tumor cell when exposed to high concentrations of TGF-β,” Chen said. Chen and colleagues are developing TGF-β CAR-T cells that also target another tumor-specific marker, in order to develop a next-generation T cell therapy that can effectively combat immunosuppressive solid tumors.

###

Media Contact
Leann Fox
[email protected]
202-256-1417

Original Source

https://www.biophysics.org/news-room?ArtMID=802&ArticleID=9138&preview=true

Tags: BiochemistryBiomechanics/BiophysicsBiomedical/Environmental/Chemical EngineeringBiotechnologycancerCell BiologyMedicine/HealthResearchers/Scientists/Awards
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Lipidomics, AI Unveil Acute Heart Disease Stages

August 5, 2025
Unraveling Antifungal Resistance in Candida tropicalis

Unraveling Antifungal Resistance in Candida tropicalis

August 5, 2025

Loneliness and Smoking Linked in Youth: Longitudinal Study

August 5, 2025

Cannabis Extract Shows Anti-Parasitic Effect on Echinococcus

August 5, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    72 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    61 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Predicting Colorectal Cancer Using Lifestyle Factors

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    47 shares
    Share 19 Tweet 12

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Lipidomics, AI Unveil Acute Heart Disease Stages

Unraveling Antifungal Resistance in Candida tropicalis

Loneliness and Smoking Linked in Youth: Longitudinal Study

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.