Researchers develop new cancer vaccine mobilizing immune cells
(Mainichi Japan) August 18, 2010
Japanese researchers have developed a cancer immunotherapy vaccine that mobilizes two types of immune cells at the same time, providing hope for the development of more effective cancer treatment.
The vaccine, developed by researchers including Takashi Nishimura of Hokkaido University, activates immune system cells called killer T cells and helper T cells at the same time, which is said to boost patients' immunity. The researchers confirmed that the vaccine cleared up cancer in a patient for whom anticancer drugs and radiation therapy had proven ineffective.
"We want to conduct more clinical trials and make decisions on its detailed effectiveness. At the same time we want to conduct research on synthesis processes for more effective vaccines," Nishimura said.
Helper T cells are a type of lymphocyte, a kind of white blood cell in the immune system, that help keep track of antigens, including cancer antigens. They aid the action of killer T cells, which attack cancer cells directly.
Previous vaccines focused on the activity of killer T cells alone, but Nishimura and the other researchers set about making both helper and killer T cells active. They created a vaccine dubbed "H/K-HELP" that artificially bound about 40 amino acids that work against cancer from peptides, which are strings of amino acids.
In clinical tests performed at Hokkaido University Hospital and Kinki University Hospital, the researchers administered the vaccine to a breast cancer patient and a patient whose lung cancer had spread to cause bowel cancer. They found that the cancer cleared up or restrained the focus of the cancer.
The researchers plan to announce their findings at a symposium of the International Congress of Immunology beginning in Kobe on Aug. 22.
Click here for the original Japanese story
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