A Cure For Cancer?
A team of researchers have engineered smart protein molecules that can
reprogram your white blood cells to ignore a self-defense signaling mechanism
that cancer cells use to survive and spread. This advance could lead to a new
method of re-engineering immune cells to fight cancer and infectious diseases.
It was successfully tested in a live cell culture system.
This discovery was made by four bioengineering professors at the University of California San Diego along with some researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The smart proteins are called "iSNAPS," for integrated sensing and activating proteins. They are designed to detect precise molecular signals in live cells and in response to those cells, act upon those signals to enable the cells to fight disease or perform other beneficial functions. This study was the first to demonstrate how both sensing and activating capabilities can be combined into a single molecule.
The researchers inserted iSNAPs into a macrophage, a type of white blood cell, and demonstrated that they can drastically enhance the macrophage’s ability to engulf and destroy rapidly dividing cancer cells. Macrophages play a significant role in the immune system. Part of what they do is remove foreign particles and harmful organisms, such as pathogens and cancer cells by digesting them. When a macrophage binds to one of the cancer cells, the proteins on the surface called Fc gamma receptors send out an “eat me” signal to tell the macrophage to engulf and destroy the invader.
However, cancer cells have a protection mechanism that contributes to their deadliness. They also have a protein on the surface, but theirs is called CD47 and it interacts with a macrophage’s SIRP-alpha surface protein to send out a “don’t eat me” signal. The secret to getting the iSNAP technology to work involves the reconfiguration of the battleground between the cancer cells and the immune system. Basically, the technology rewires the macrophages to change the “don’t eat me” signal to an “eat me” signal.
iSNAPs have a component that can sense the event that occurs when its SIRP-alpha surface protein interacts with the CD47 on the cancer cell. In response, iSNAPs have an activating component that transforms to produce a green/yellow signal. This allows the researchers a way to visualize the activity through a microscope.
This technology can also be modified to re-engineer immune cells to kill bacteria. They can also be applied to other immune cell types like T cells. The researchers are interested in studying whether the iSNAP can be harnessed to enhance other cellular functions to correct various disease pathologies.
Source: Sun, J., Lei, L., Tsai, C. M., Wang, Y., Shi, Y., Ouyang, M., ... & Huang, M. (2017). Engineered proteins with sensing and activating modules for automated reprogramming of cellular functions. Nature Communications, 8.
This discovery was made by four bioengineering professors at the University of California San Diego along with some researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The smart proteins are called "iSNAPS," for integrated sensing and activating proteins. They are designed to detect precise molecular signals in live cells and in response to those cells, act upon those signals to enable the cells to fight disease or perform other beneficial functions. This study was the first to demonstrate how both sensing and activating capabilities can be combined into a single molecule.
The researchers inserted iSNAPs into a macrophage, a type of white blood cell, and demonstrated that they can drastically enhance the macrophage’s ability to engulf and destroy rapidly dividing cancer cells. Macrophages play a significant role in the immune system. Part of what they do is remove foreign particles and harmful organisms, such as pathogens and cancer cells by digesting them. When a macrophage binds to one of the cancer cells, the proteins on the surface called Fc gamma receptors send out an “eat me” signal to tell the macrophage to engulf and destroy the invader.
However, cancer cells have a protection mechanism that contributes to their deadliness. They also have a protein on the surface, but theirs is called CD47 and it interacts with a macrophage’s SIRP-alpha surface protein to send out a “don’t eat me” signal. The secret to getting the iSNAP technology to work involves the reconfiguration of the battleground between the cancer cells and the immune system. Basically, the technology rewires the macrophages to change the “don’t eat me” signal to an “eat me” signal.
iSNAPs have a component that can sense the event that occurs when its SIRP-alpha surface protein interacts with the CD47 on the cancer cell. In response, iSNAPs have an activating component that transforms to produce a green/yellow signal. This allows the researchers a way to visualize the activity through a microscope.
This technology can also be modified to re-engineer immune cells to kill bacteria. They can also be applied to other immune cell types like T cells. The researchers are interested in studying whether the iSNAP can be harnessed to enhance other cellular functions to correct various disease pathologies.
Source: Sun, J., Lei, L., Tsai, C. M., Wang, Y., Shi, Y., Ouyang, M., ... & Huang, M. (2017). Engineered proteins with sensing and activating modules for automated reprogramming of cellular functions. Nature Communications, 8.
Loved your post. Being from a family that has an unfortunate past with cancer, your post was very interesting to me. I remember learning in cell bio how complex cancer cells were and about their protection mechanism. I think it is so cool with the research they're doing and I cannot wait to see this continue.
ReplyDeleteThat was a great analogy to allow us to understand the material. Cancer cells are such a struggle and their ability to survive is so difficult to overcome any breakthrough is worth it. Finding this if we are able to restructure the signals on cancer perhaps this could also help with people who may have other infections which could also be tagged with this eat me signal.
ReplyDeleteCancer is one of the biggest medical crisis' in the world today. Cancer is notoriously hard to treat and a cure has been very elusive. What makes it even more perplexing is its complex and persistent nature. Hopefully a cure can be found in the near future. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI, too, have had to witness what something like cancer can do to a loved one. It excites me seeing break throughs like this because it is something no one should ever have to deal with from either end. I do have a question regarding iSNAPs though. How is it able to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells and is there any type of risk associated with iSNAPs? Very informative and interesting article, by the way!
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