The immune system plays an important role in fighting infections and cancer. And it is imperative for the immune system to keep the balance right, which is achieved by some genes that adjust the immune response. When this adjustment is disturbed, the immune system fails to prevent or fight cancer.
A study conducted by the researchers of the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical has found that disrupting a particular gene called PTPN2, which is a key immune regulator, can boost anti-cancer immunity and enable cancer clearance.
The study was published in Nature Immunology.
The researchers found that disrupting the PTPN2 gene from the immune system of mice, which harbors cancer, stimulates the production of T-cells that fight cancer.
They found that in one experience, deleting that gene eradicated colon cancer in all mice. In another experiment, the researchers found that skin cancer was eradicated in most mice with the same approach and the blockage of another protein called PD-1, which also regulated the immune system.
The researchers explained that these findings could help design the treatments that target this particular gene to boost the body’s anti-cancer response. However, they said that clinical trials are required to determine the effects of deleting that gene in humans.
Senior study author Arlene Sharpe said, “PTPN2 represents an especially tantalizing target for cancer immunotherapy given its role in reining in anti-tumor immune signaling. We are encouraged by what we found. There are critical similarities between the immune systems of mice and humans, which gives us hope that this strategy may eventually translate into humans, but there is much more work to be done.”
“We are hopeful that our new findings could be harnessed for the development of both cell-based cancer therapies and PTPN2 small molecule inhibitors that augment current checkpoint blockade treatments,” said the study’s first author Martin LaFleur. LaFleur noted, “Identifying and prioritizing therapeutic targets that simultaneously improve the immune system’s response to the tumor and also make the tumor more susceptible to immune attack should lead to even more potent treatments.”
