New "Splinter Cell" Super-Immune Cells Created; Ready to Fight Cancer, AIDS

Daily Tech ^ | April 27, 2010 7:45 PM | Jason Mick (Blog)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Why use drugs, when you can improve the body's own designs?

Evolution has bestowed mammals with amazingly complex and robust immune systems capable of fighting off a variety of foreign invaders including fungi, bacteria, and viruses.  The immune system is also capable of detecting cancerous cells -- cells in which mutations have led to uncontrolled growth which threatens to engulf normal healthy tissues.

The problem is that even nature sometimes falls short.  The immune system's T Cells, special cells used to fight extreme abnormalities such as AIDS and cancer (note, a special type of T cell fights HIV-infected T cells in AIDS), often times lack the supporting cells or can't stop the abnormality's growth fast enough.

A solution is adoptive immunotherapy, an approach in which certain T cells are harvested from the body and then cultured and exposed to the abnormality.  Kept in a tightly controlled environment they reprogram to fight the abnormality faster than in the complex human body.  The final step is to insert the cells back into the human body, now ready to fight the threat.

Unfortunately, the lack of supporting cells has hindered the promising approach.  So

Stanford University bioengineering researchers developed T cells that produce their own cytokines, the special chemical that the T cells typically obtain from other immune cells.  In essence this transforms immune cells into an "army of one", which can fight the threat even if other immune cells have been killed, compromised, or are otherwise unavailable.

To prevent these cells from growing and proliferating out of control (the whole reason for the cytokine system), the researchers encoded a cellular RNA switch that confers a new sensitivity to a specific drug (different riboswitches were used, including ones sensitive to the drugs tetracycline and theophylline).  The T cells only produce their own cytokines when exposed to this drug.

The super-cells featured 24 percent more live cells, when cultured, than normal T cells.  They also had a 50 percent reduced death rate.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

********************************EXCERPTED***********************************

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related thread:

Dendreon gets prostate cancer drug approved by FDA

[Taffini]

killing cancer bump

[neverdem]

You forgot to indicate it was an excerpt.

T cells protect our bodies against attackers like bacteria, cancer, and the AIDS virus. Scientists at Stanford have found a way to not only target them to threats more effectively (past work), but to allow them to act independent of other immune cells (new work). (Source: Laplacian Files)

Genetic control of mammalian T-cell proliferation with synthetic RNA regulatory systems

Forgive the Wikipedia link, Ribozyme.

[Marine_Uncle]

Great articles. Thanks for the ping.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I did state it ....just didn’t use the FR mechanism...

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks Ernest_at_the_Beach. Why use drugs, when you can improve the body's own designs? Evolution has bestowed mammals with amazingly complex and robust immune systems... Yes, I do enjoy stickin' my hand into a beehive, why do you ask? To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[colorado tanker]

Why use drugs

Say WHAT?

[SueRae]

Thank you Ernest. I’ve been an investor in Dendreon for over 7 years. Today was the culmination of 15 years of research, trials and yes, unnecessary patient deaths caused by an FDA delay the first time it came up for approval. Today is the begining of a new way to treat cancer. Prosate cancer is only the first. Dendreon has a pipeline; this is no one-trick pony. And yes, i’d recommend buying some stock. This will be Amgn or Celgene within a few years.

[diamond6]

BTTT