Detection of FAP proteins related to cancer

British scientists have conducted research on mice and found that when fibroblasts activate FAP protein will work to prevent body immune cells from attacking cancer cells.

Artwork: iStockphoto / Sebastian Kaulitzki

At the same time when fibroblasts destroy FAP proteins , cancer cells will lose their ability to completely fight the immune system.

The development of cancer vaccines on the basis of this research can help the body's immune system kill cancer cells. If this method succeeds, it will help the scientific community to radically change the current status of cancer treatment.

Douglas Phelan, an immunologist at the University of Cambridge, said the scientific community used to try to take advantage of the body's immune system to cope with cancer, but those efforts failed. Obviously, there is a protein in the human body that can " lie" even nourishing cancer cells.

Therefore, destroying this protein will cause the tumor to completely lose its resistance, thereby destroying the immune system.

The FAP protein has a relationship with many types of cancer, such as breast cancer, bowel cancer and lung cancer, and is common in mesenchymal stem cells.

Scientists modified the genes of experimental mice so they could readily block the production of FAP proteins. Then continue to have mice with lung cancer. As a result, when FAP protein is blocked, lung cancer cells will be destroyed, cancer cells begin to die at a rapid rate.

According to the scientists, the study helps us delve into why the body's immune system can destroy other types of diseases, but it cannot destroy cancer cells.

Scientist Douglas Phelan said that although the study is still stopped at an early stage, the development of tumors in experimental mice is likely to occur in tumor cells on the human body.

Scientists plan to continue the experiment to clarify the effect of the FAP protein on the human immune system.