The recent discovery of a “killer immune cell” that could potentially serve as a universal cure for cancer has sparked optimism among scientists. Researchers at Cardiff University identified a particular type of T-cell in human blood that has the ability to target and kill various kinds of cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unaffected. This finding suggests the potential development of a “one-size-fits-all” treatment for cancer.
Unlike the current CAR-T cell therapies, which are personalized for individual patients and have limitations in targeting a limited number of cancers and solid tumors, the newly discovered T-cell equipped with a unique T-cell receptor (TCR) can distinguish between healthy and diseased cells, selectively eliminating only the cancerous ones. The broad cancer specificity observed in this TCR raises the possibility of a more universally applicable cancer therapy.
Professor Andrew Sewell, the lead author of the study from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine, highlighted the significance of this discovery, stating that it opens up a new avenue for targeting and eradicating a wide range of cancers across diverse populations. This novel TCR offers the potential for a “one-size-fits-all” cancer treatment, which had previously been considered unattainable.
The remarkable feature of this new TCR lies in its ability to recognize cancer cells via a single HLA-like molecule called MR1, which sets it apart from the conventional T-cells that rely on human leukocyte antigen (HLA) to identify anomalies in the surface of cells. In laboratory experiments, T-cells bearing this new TCR demonstrated the capability to kill various cancer cells, including those associated with lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bone, prostate, ovarian, kidney, and cervical cancer, while sparing healthy cells.
Furthermore, testing the therapeutic potential of these T-cells in vivo on mice bearing human cancer and human immune systems revealed promising results comparable to the currently approved CAR-T therapy.
The researchers are now focused on further investigation into the molecular mechanism through which the new TCR distinguishes between healthy and cancerous cells and have plans to conduct clinical trials using this approach in patients later this year. This breakthrough discovery has the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment and offers hope for a more effective and widely applicable therapy in the future.