Tiny implantable device designed by UCLA scientists helps kill cancer

Many solid tumors resist treatment in part by turning human biology against itself. Tumors surround themselves with extra white blood cells known as regulatory T cells, which call off the body ’s natural defenses against the disease.Strategies to treat cancer by deactivating these cells risk creating other serious problems. Since regulatory T cells play an important role in safeguarding healthy tissues, diminishing them throughout the body can lead to other immune cells mistakenly attacking these tissues and causing autoimmune conditions that damage the colon, liver, heart and other organs.Now, an interdisciplinary UCLA research team reports encouraging results in laboratory studies testing a tiny implantable device they call a SymphNode, which is designed to keep regulatory T cells in check only in the area around a tumor while summoning and strengthening tumor-fighting cells. The device was shown to drive tumors into remission, eliminate metastasis, prevent the growth of new tumors and result in longer survival in mice.Their findings arepublished today in Nature Biomedical Engineering.“Getting rid of regulatory T cells within the tumor seems to be transformative,” said co–corresponding author Manish Butte, UCLA’s E. Richard Stiehm Professor of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology and a member of theCalifornia NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.“Every solid tumor is crammed with these cells, and they’re why 91% of cancer deaths occur from solid tumors. The...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news