May 19, 2018 (Medical News Today)
This study was published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. It discovered that when cholesterol levels are decreased, cancer fighting immunotherapy is more effective. Although two immunotherapy procedures (Yescarta and Kymriah) were approved by the FDA in 2017, researchers are still learning how to boost immunotherapy results.
Dr. Qing Yi, Ph.D., from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute in Ohio, is looking at how cholesterol may affect adoptive T-cell transfer. Using gene profiling, the researchers compared Tc9 cells to other types of T cells. They discovered that the Tc9 cells had significantly less cholesterol. To test whether or not this was a key to improving immunotherapy, they added cholesterol-lowering drugs to cancer cells before treating them. This “turned on” anti-cancer pathways.
Next, they used an animal model for more testing. They found that by reducing the cholesterol levels before the immunotherapy began, the anti-tumor effects became more pronounced.
In conclusion, the study suggests that a simple, low cost way to improve T-cell transfer immunotherapy may be to add cholesterol lowering medication to the process.
