Study finds new immune cell to attack and eliminate cancer, Covid

Researchers have discovered a type of immune cell in the human body known to be important for allergy and other immune responses that can also attack and eliminate cancer and fight viruses like SARSCov2 that causes Covid19 infectionThese cells called human type2 innate lymphoid cells ILC2s can be expanded outside of the body and applied in larger numbers to overpower a tumours defences and eliminate malignant cells in mouse models with cancer according to the preclinical research published in the journal CellWe have identified human ILC2 cells as a new member of the cell family capable of directly killing all types of cancers including blood cancers and solid tumours said Jianhua Yu Professor in the Department of Hematology amp Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope California USIn the future these cells could be manufactured preserved by freezing and then administered to patients Unlike T cellbased therapies like CAR Tcells which necessitate using the patients own cells due to their specific characteristics ILC2s might be sourced from healthy donors presenting a distinct potential therapeutic approach as an allogeneic and offtheshelf product Yu addedIn a previous research focussed on mouse cells ILC2s had not consistently shown promise when tested for their cancerkilling abilitiesHowever in the new study researchers found that human ILC2s function as direct cancer killers while their mouse counterparts do not said Michael Caligiuri Professor in the Department of Hematology amp Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of HopeTo test human ILC2s Yu and the team first isolated the cells from a blood sample Then they developed a novel platform that in four weeks can expand ILC2s harvested from the body 2000foldThey next injected these externally expanded ILC2s into mice engrafted with human acute myeloid leukaemia AML or solid tumours including pancreatic cancer lung cancer and glioblastoma The results showed that this ILC2 population could kill these tumours via a previously unknown cancerkilling mechanismOne convincing and direct piece of evidence appeared when we placed one ILC2 and one tumour cell directly together and found that the tumour cell died but the ILC2 cell survived Yu saidThis proves that the ILC2s directly killed the cancer cell in the absence of any other cellILC2s are rare in the body Caligiuri said found in highest numbers in the lungs gut and skinYu noted that the ILC2s do not need to come from the cancer patients own cells meaning that there may be the possibility of harvesting and freezing ILC2s from healthy donors for ILC2 treatment options in the futureWe aim to really expand the applications of these findings potentially beyond cancer treatments Yu said noting that ILC2s may even work against viruses such as Covid19This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever