In a new study from Karolinska Institutet, researchers have developed a new kind of immunotherapy for leukemia.
They found that the therapy kills cancer cells from patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most common form of childhood leukemia.
The disease is characterized by the unregulated growth of immature white blood cells, an essential component of the immune system, in the bone marrow and suppression of other healthy blood cells.
The condition is normally treated with chemotherapy or, in severe cases, bone marrow transplantation or immunotherapy, involving the genetic modification of the patient’s own T cells to make them attack another type of white blood cell called B cells.
However, the therapy only works on some patients and side effects can be harmful.
In the study, the team discovered another way to reprogramme the T cells so that they bind to a target expressed inside the cancer cells instead of on the cell surface.
The new immunotherapy has the potential to spare healthy T and B cells while eliminating leukemia cells of both the B and T cell type.
To date, the method has been tested on mice with B-cell leukemia and on cell samples from patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia of both cell types.
The team showed that the method is able to find and eliminate leukemia cells distributed in different organs.
They also saw no negative effect on healthy B and T cells or on the development of new blood cells, which suggests that the treatment can be safe.
The team is now planning for a clinical trial to test the therapy on patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who lack therapeutic alternatives.
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The study is published in Nature Biotechnology. One author of the study is Professor Johanna Olweus.
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