New research has emerged showing that a stem cell-derived therapy may be able to treat the most common, and deadliest, form of liver cancer.
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have developed a therapy using natural killer (NK) cells derived from stem cells to help combat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) – a highly treatment resistant tumour. [1]
While not yet studied in patients, it’s hoped that the therapy (which was tested both in vitro against HCC cell lines and in vivo in a mouse model) will be influential in future trials for treating HCC, and other solid tumours.
How does the stem cell therapy work?
Like other tumour cells, hepatocellular carcinoma cells inhibit the body’s immune cells from attacking them.
By creating this immunosuppressive environment, the tumour effectively prevents itself from being targeted by the body’s immune system, allowing it to propagate and spread.
This makes developing treatment for solid tumours difficult. Immunotherapies using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-expressing T-cells tend to be rather ineffective in combating solid tumours like HCC, rather than other forms of cancer, like blood cancers, for this reason. [2]
In order to make an effective therapy, the team of researchers realised that they had to prevent the HCC tumour from being able to create the immunosuppressive environment in the first place.
To do this, they engineered NK cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells and disabled their receptor for transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), a protein that suppresses immune function and is abundant in HCC tumours.
Their findings showed that these modified NK cells had significantly better anti-tumor activity and improved survival rates in preclinical models than NK cells without the genetic modification. [3]
What impact will this liver cancer therapy have?
Being able to derive NK cells from induced pluripotent stem cells means that the new HCC therapy is an ‘off-the-shelf’ therapy, according to the researchers.
Unlike CAR T-cell therapy, which is a highly personalised immunotherapy, the genetically modified NK cell therapy could theoretically be mass produced, say the UCSD team.
This means the therapy could vastly improve not just the effectiveness of treatment outcomes, but could also potentially streamline the treatment process for patients.
Furthermore, the researchers’ findings suggest that the genetic disabling of the TGF-β receptor could be effective in treating other types of solid tumour which, like HCC, create immunosuppressive environments.
The team anticipate that future clinical trials will build upon their research, taking their findings and applying them in the development of both NK cell and CAR-T cell therapies for a range of solid tumours.
Regenerative medicine and cord blood banking
Research like this highlights the importance of stem cells in driving future medical breakthroughs.
Much like the induced pluripotent stem cells in this study, the stem cells in your baby’s umbilical cord blood are able to differentiate into a range of cell types, including NK cells. [4]
Saving these stem cells for your baby provides them with the best chance of accessing more of the cutting edge therapies of the future.
By saving their stem cells, you can be secure in the knowledge that they’ll always have cells from their own perfect donor match available: themselves.
To find out more about saving stem cells for your baby fill out the form below to request your FREE Welcome Pack.
References
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