The proposal involves a technique known as CAR-T cell therapy, which consists of reprogramming cancer patients' defense cells so that they start attacking the tumor.
A research project presented by Isadora Ferraz Semionatto, a doctoral student at the Institute of Biology at the State University of Campinas (IB-Unicamp), won first place in Immuno-Colombia 2021, a course organized by International Union of Immunological Societies, Latin American and Caribbean Association For Immunology and American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
The course takes place every year and brings together students from various countries who are pursuing a doctorate, post-doctorate or are doctors in the areas of rheumatology, allergy or oncology. The objective is to discuss relevant topics in the area of immunotherapy and new immunotherapeutic approaches.
Entitled “How to overcome CAR-T cell dysfunction in solid tumors”, the project presented by Semionatto seeks alternatives for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, one of the most aggressive and difficult to control.
The proposal involves a technique known as CAR-T cell therapy, which consists of reprogramming defense cells (T lymphocytes) from cancer patients so that they start attacking the tumor. The method has already proven effective in treating some types of lymphoma.
“To obtain these lymphocytes that express the CAR [acronym in English for chimeric antigen receptor], we need to isolate T lymphocytes from the blood of patients to be treated and genetically modify these cells to express the receptor on their surface. In this case, we produce CAR capable of recognizing the mesothelin antigen, which is overexpressed in pancreatic cancer and poorly expressed in healthy pancreatic cells. The generation of a CAR-T cell capable of recognizing mesothelin would give greater specificity to therapy against pancreatic cancer”, explains the doctoral student.
The project also plans to combine anti-mesothelin CAR-T cell therapy with oncolytic virus therapy – a type of virus that selectively replicates in cancer cells and destroys them.
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