A team at UCLA has developed a technique to trigger the immune system to combat cancer by inserting an energizing protein in a nanoscale package or a vault directly into lung tumors. This utilizes the body's natural immune system to combat proliferation of the disease.
According to Leonard Rome, a researcher at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, associate director of the California NanoSystems Institutes and co-author of the research paper, the barrel-shaped nanocapsules that exist in the cytoplasm of cells in all mammals were designed to gradually emit the chemokine CCL21 protein into the tumor. Initial laboratory tests were conducted in mice with lung cancer. These revealed that the protein encouraged the immune system to identify and combat the cancer cells, restricting the disease from growing. The immune system in lung tumors is down-regulated.
The system uses a patient's white blood cells to develop dendritic cells of the immune system that analyze antigen material and deliver to other cells on the surface. It is impractical to develop dendritic cells from white blood cells and design them to over-produce CCL21. It needs a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) suite, a laboratory used solely for the safe growth and cell manipulation. Sherven Sharma, a researcher at the Jonsson Cancer Center and the California NanoSystems Institute, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine and co-author of the paper said that the dendritic cells could be isolated and grown only in a few patients.
The vault nanoparticles holding the CCL21 have been designed to gradually generate the protein into the tumor over a long period, allowing for a lasting immune response. The vaults protect the CCL21, but serve as a programmed capsule. The nanoparticle would need only one injection into the tumor, and could be customized. The vault surface could also be infused with antibodies to identify tumor receptors. The injection could be administered into the blood stream, while the vault traveled to the tumor. The vault can be designed to hunt and combat nanoscale tumors and metastases.
The research paper was recently published in the May 3 edition of PLoS One, a journal of the Public Library of Science.