Cancer immunotherapy has advanced the field of medicine and cancer care. Specifically, immunotherapy refers to the targeted treatment of the immune system. Over the last few decades, immunotherapy has been applied to cancer in attempts to enhance and reactivate the immune response.
In the context of cancer, the immune system is suppressed by polarized, protumor cells. Interestingly, these cells promote cancer progression after exposure to tumor-secreting proteins. In addition to altering cell function, the tumor employs other mechanisms to evade immune detection. As a result, cancer progresses and spreads to other tissues through a process known as metastasis. In response, scientists have developed immunotherapies to redirect immune cells toward the tumor.
The immune system orchestrates multiple cell types to deliver strong immunity. The systemic response of different cells works to identify and eliminate pathogens that entire the body. T cells are the main cells responsible for eliminating infection. They are accompanied by other immune activating cells such as B cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and dendritic cells. Many immunotherapies currently target T cells because of their function to destroy pathogens. However, other types of immunotherapies are designed to alter other immune cell functions that enhance T cell activity. One form of immunotherapy includes the idea of ‘reprogramming’. In this type of treatment, cells that have protumor functions are reprogrammed to be more antitumor-like. Recently, a team at Lund University used this reprogramming approach to improve immunotherapeutic outcomes.
An article published in Immunity, by Dr. Carlos-Filipe Pereira and others, reprogrammed dendritic cells to improve immune response against solid tumors. Pereira is a Professor of Molecular Medicine at Lund University in Sweden. His work focuses on cellular reprograming and the development of reprogramming-based immunotherapies. His most recent article discusses how dendritic cells can be reprogrammed to improve their function of T cell activation.
Pereira and his team identified a genetic toolkit that improves antitumor dendritic cell activity. The goal of developing a dendritic cell therapy is to design a strong and precise treatment to offer patients with cancer. Dendritic cells are very diverse, and this cellular diversity has long been a puzzle to scientists. It is unclear how different dendritic cells differentiate. Through computational gene analysis, researchers tested different proteins that potentially influence dendritic cell development. As a result, they identified two distinct toolkits that reprogrammed ‘basic’, non-dendritic cells into strong, antitumor dendritic cells.
Pereira and his group were able to convert one cell type into another. While cell reprogramming has been used to alter a cell’s function, it has not been reported to completely change cell types. This is a paradigm-shifting study that has the potential to improve dendritic cell research and enhance immunotherapy. This work provides the first blueprint of dendritic cell diversity that can help improve healthcare for patients with cancer. Not only can this new therapy be applied to cancer, but also to autoimmune disorders. Overall, this work better informs scientists about the diversity of dendritic cells and how subsets can be reprogrammed to protect the body against various diseases.