Category: Cancer

Following its success against COVID-19, BioNTech is now focused on its cancer vaccines.

By  Ameya Paleja

Buoyed by the success of its mRNA technology against COVID-19, BioNTech is now focused on its cancer vaccines. The company recently began dosing patients for its Phase II trial for an advanced melanoma vaccine in the European Union.

BioNTech calls itself a “next-generation immunotherapy company pioneering in therapies for cancer and other serious diseases.” The COVID-19 vaccine was a minor detour for the company. The company’s product pipeline is filled with mRNA vaccines targeting different types of cancers, most of which are in preclinical stages. BioNTech recently began the Phase II trial of BNT111, which will test its mRNA vaccine in combination with an antibody-drug, Libtayo, in patients with anti-PD1-relapsed Stage III/ IV melanoma. Libtayo is the commercial name for cemiplimab, co-developed by Regeneron and Sanofi, and is an anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody.

Continue reading… “BioNTech Now Aims Its mRNA Technology at Cancer”

BY JIM GOODWIN-WUSTL

“We think this is the first report of the use of a neoantigen DNA vaccine in a human, and our monitoring confirms the vaccine was successful in prompting an immune response that targeted specific neoantigens in the patient’s tumor,” William Gillanders says.

Researchers have shown that personalized cancer vaccines made using DNA can program the immune system to attack malignant tumors, including breast and pancreatic cancers.

The researchers conducted the study in mice with breast cancer and one patient with late-stage pancreatic cancer.

The COVID-19 vaccines—designed using bits of genetic information that prime our immune systems to recognize and fight off viral infections—have become lifesavers in the global fight to end the pandemic.

Now, the new research has shown that a similar vaccine approach can be used to create personalized vaccines that program the immune system to attack malignant tumors, including breast and pancreatic cancers.

The tailor-made vaccines are designed to target mutated proteins called neoantigens that are unique to a patient’s tumors. Unlike the COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech that rely on genetic material called mRNA, the personalized cancer vaccines are made using DNA.

Continue reading… “DNA-BASED CANCER VACCINE TRIGGERS IMMUNE ATTACK ON TUMORS”

Figure 1 Cathepsin S (CS) protein expression levels are induced through the -1048 promoter fragment from the CTTS gene upon Paclitaxel or hydrogen peroxide stimulation. HEK293 and 769P cells were stimulated with increasing doses of Paclitaxel (Pac) and hydrogen peroxide (HP) and soluble lysates prepared after 24 h and equal volumes analyzed by Western blotting for cathepsin S (CS), BAX and actin expression (Panel A). Similarly, total RNA was isolated from cells stimulated for 24 h with increasing doses of Pac or HP and equal quantities of template cDNA analyzed for transcriptional expression of CS, BAX and Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAP-DH, Panel B). Promoter fragments, derived from the transcriptional start site of the CTTS gene to -1048 and -564, were PCR cloned and fused to a promoter-less GFP encoding plasmid (Panel C) and evaluated for GFP expression in equal volumes of HEK293 and 769P cleared whole cell lysates (WCLs) under Pac (10 μg/mL and 5 μg/mL, respectively) or HP (5 μM) stimulatory conditions. GFP expression was also quantified, standardized and corrected against GFP expression from cells stimulated with carrier alone and is shown as a fold change over basal GFP expression (Panel D). HEK293 cells transfected with pCS-1048 or pCS-564 and stimulated with Pac (5 μg/mL) for 24 h were also fixed and visualized for GFP expression using laser scanning confocal microscopy (Panel E). The red bar indicates 1 micron. Quantified data are presented as the mean ± SEM and its significance (where p < 0.05) determined, using a two-way Student’s t-test (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01 and *** p < 0.001).

An innovative new technique that encourages cancer cells in the kidneys to self-destruct could revolutionize the treatment of the disease, a new study in the journal Pharmaceutics reports.

During this unique study, researchers from the University of Surrey and Sechenov First Moscow State Medical Universityin Russia investigatedwhethercertain naturally occurring proteins within the body can be used treat cancer.

Continue reading… “Innovative technique developed to destroy cancerous kidney cells”

A RECENT STUDY OF PERSONALIZED CANCER VACCINES SHOWED “VERY REWARDING” RESULTS.

By VICTOR TANGERMANN

A team of researchers say they’ve designed a personalized cancer vaccine capable of inducing an immune response that fights off melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, that lasts for several years.

In a study published in the journal Nature Medicine back in January, the scientists examined eight subjects who previously had their melanoma surgically removed, but were still at a high risk of recurrence.

All eight were injected with the experimental vaccine called NeoVax. The results were promising: the researchers found a vaccine-induced immune response in all patients that can “persist over years,” according to the paper.

Continue reading… “HARVARD SCIENTISTS EXCITED BY RESULTS ON NEW CANCER VACCINE”

By  U.S. National Institutes of Health

Scientists have genetically engineered immune cells, called myeloid cells, to precisely deliver an anticancer signal to organs where cancer may spread. In a study of mice, treatment with the engineered cells shrank tumors and prevented the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. The study, led by scientists at the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Center for Cancer Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, was published March 24, 2021, in Cell.

“This is a novel approach to immunotherapy that appears to have promise as a potential treatment for metastatic cancer,” said the study’s leader, Rosandra Kaplan, M.D., of NCI’s Center for Cancer Research.

Metastatic cancer — cancer that has spread from its original location to other parts of the body — is notoriously difficult to treat. Dr. Kaplan’s team has been exploring another approach: Preventing cancer from spreading in the first place.

Before cancer spreads, it sends out signals that get distant sites ready for the cancer’s arrival — like calling ahead to have the pillows fluffed in your hotel room prior to arrival. These “primed and ready” sites, discovered by Dr. Kaplan in 2005, are called premetastatic niches.

In the new study, the NCI team explored the behavior of immune cells in the premetastatic niche. Because Dr. Kaplan is a pediatric oncologist, the team mainly studied mice implanted with rhabdomyosarcoma, a type of cancer that develops in the muscles of children and often spreads to their lungs.

Continue reading… “Engineered Immune Cells Deliver Anticancer Signal, Prevent Cancer From Spreading”

The future of cancer treatment may be robot-delivered.

By Jay Sprogell

THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE is going to be hand-delivered — but not by mail carriers. Instead, life-saving drugs will be parceled, smuggled, and transported in the body via tiny, self-propelled microbots.

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics, a research team in China designed a new kind of bio-hybrid microbot that uses clever biological disguises to get even closer to the source of disease in the body in order to provide the most targeted (and effective) treatment.

The target of choice? Hard to treat illness epicenters like brain tumors.

Continue reading… “TINY ROBOTS CAN NOW SMUGGLE DRUGS INTO BRAIN TUMORS”

The disposable device take more than 57,000 pictures as it works its way through the digestive tract, replacing uncomfortable endoscopies

By Henry Bodkin

Swallowable cameras the size of capsules will be given to NHS patients in a “sci-fi” bid to check for cancer.

Taking more than 57,000 pictures as they work through the digestive system, the disposable devices are intended to replace complicated and uncomfortable endoscopies.

They will be handed out initially to 11,000 patients in more than 40 locations in England.

NHS leaders hope the revolutionary devices will help turn the tide of missed and late cancer diagnoses caused by disruption from the pandemic.

Users will wear an accompanying shoulder bag containing a data recorder, meaning they can carry on their lives as normal while the camera is at work. Known as colon camera endoscopy, the technology can provide a diagnosis within hours.

Continue reading… “Tiny swallowable cameras will check for cancer in ‘sci-fi’ development”