April 27, 2018 (Medical News Today)
T cells, a type of white blood cell, have an innate ability to recognize, attack and kill cancer cells. However, it is very apparent now that some tumors can ‘switch off’ this ability of T cells. Due to this unfortunate reality, a team from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) has developed a new method to switch the anti-cancer ability back on in T cells. Their method consists of engineered genes, laser technology, and gold nanoparticles.
This approach is a form of immunotherapy that helps the immune system kill cancer cells. For their experiment, researchers initially presented the T cells with their genetic switches turned off into tumors that they had implanted into mice. Gold nanoparticles had been placed into these tumors before they were put into the mice. A “near-infrared” laser was then shone onto the tumors, allowing the gold nanoparticles to warm up the tumors and the T cells. The result of this was that it turned on the engineered genetic switches in the T cells and significantly increased gene expression that controls the production of specific proteins.
Next, the researchers hope to add on to this method a way to increase the production of proteins that would help immune system cells target and kill cancer cells.
