Discovered immune mechanism 'can treat all types of cancer'

Scientists from Cardiff University (Wales) have just published research results showing the potential of harnessing the body's immune mechanism to treat all cancers.

According to the BBC (UK), a team of scientists from Cardiff University has found a special immune mechanism in the body that can be exploited to destroy prostate, breast, lung and many more cancer cells. Other cancers in lab tests.

T cells attack cancer cells - (Image: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)

The findings have just been published in the journal Nature Immunology . Although it has not been tested in patients, the researchers say the method has "great potential".

According to the expert group, although their research is only in its preliminary stage, the results obtained from it show many positive signals.

The immune system is the body's natural defense mechanism against infections, and is also capable of attacking cancer cells.

The team of scientists at Cardiff University has been intentionally looking for "non-traditional" and previously unexplored ways of the immune system in attacking natural defense-style tumors.

What they found was a new type of T cell in human blood. These are immune cells that can "scan" the body, "assess the situation" to see if there is any risk to the body that the "warriors" need to eliminate.

The difference in their research is that this type of T cell can attack a range of cancers."It is likely that it will be able to treat all cancer patients," said researcher, professor Andrew Sewell, member of the research team, sharing information with the BBC.

"No one had believed this was possible before," said Andrew Sewell.

"It suggests the potential of a" one size fits all "therapy, explains Andrew Sewell, which is one type of T cell but can kill many other types of cancer cells. together.

Image of T cells attacking cancer cells in the body - (Image: SHUTTERSTOCK)

T cells have " receptors" (receptors) on their surface, allowing them to be "visible" at the chemical level, the simplest level in a cellular structure.

Accordingly, in laboratory experiments, the Cardiff University team discovered that T cells and its receptors can find and kill a variety of cancer cells such as lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bones, prostate, ovaries, liver and cervix.

And it is important that T cells do not "touch" healthy tissue (or healthy cells) in the human body.

Normally, T cells are difficult to distinguish between cancer cells and healthy cells due to their similar genetic structure, so they often attack both types.

However, the type of T-cell that has been discovered by the research team is still capable of distinguishing between the two and only attacking cancer cells.

How exactly this process works is still being explored. A special type of T-cell receptor interacts with a molecule called MR1 that is inherent on the surface of every cell in the human body.

It is thought that the MR1 molecule will signal the disturbing metabolism inside a cancer cell to the immune system.

"We are the first to describe a T cell that finds MR1 ​​in cancer cells, something that has never been done before, this is the first of its kind," said researcher Garry Dolton, said the research team.

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