Did you know that in 1891, Dr. William B. Coley used the first immunotherapy to save a patient with inoperable cancer?
Since then, cancer immunotherapy has changed cancer treatment. It has been offering hope for patients with limited options.
However, despite significant progress, many therapies still fail to target cancer cells effectively.
This results in treatment resistance and harmful side effects. Many challenges may arise, such as:
- Inability to selectively target only cancer cells
- Insufficient activation of immune responses
- Side effects that affect healthy cells
This is where active proteins come in. They hold promise in overcoming these hurdles.
What Are Active Proteins?
These proteins help regulate cellular processes like immune responses and cancer cell survival. They work as enzymes, receptors, or ligands and play an important role in detecting and treating cancer.
For example, certain proteins trigger immune responses, while others help tumors evade immune detection.
How Active Proteins Help With Cancer Treatment
1. Improves Immune Responses
These proteins help activate immune cells so they can better recognize and attack cancer cells. Immunotherapy blocks these checkpoint proteins to restore activity and effectively fight cancer.
2. Targets Tumor-Specific Antigens
In CAR-T cell therapy, these proteins are modified to find and target cancer cells. This helps make sure that only the cancer cells are attacked, leaving the healthy tissues alone. CAR-T therapy is a very effective and personalized treatment because it trains the immune system to recognize specific markers on cancer cells.
3. Promote Tumor Cell Death
Some of these proteins, like TRAIL, cause cancer cells to die quickly. They trigger a process that kills the tumor cells. As a result, this slows down cancer growth and shrinks tumors. These treatments are more precise and target only the specific proteins that help tumor cells survive.
The Future of Cancer Immunotherapy
The future is promising because there are many new developments on the horizon. Research is focused on:
- Improving the targeting of these proteins
- Overcoming resistance mechanisms
- Personalizing treatments to individual patients
Areas of Focus in Cancer Research
1. Combination Therapy
It basically involves using two or more treatments together. This strategy aims to target cancer cells effectively.
For instance:
- Chemotherapy + immunotherapy helps the body’s immune system fight against cancer.
- A combination of immunotherapies, like checkpoint inhibitors, boosts the immune response against cancer.
2. New Biomarkers
The discovery of new biomarkers is important for advancing cancer research and treatment. Biomarkers, which can be proteins, genes, or other molecules, help to detect, diagnose, and monitor cancer more accurately.
One of the most promising advancements in biomarker discovery is:
- Use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for comprehensive analysis of genetic mutations and alterations in cancer cells.
- Blood-based biomarkers, particularly circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), enable non-invasive cancer detection and can be used to track how a tumor responds to treatment.
3. Precision Medicine
Precision medicine will become increasingly important as we better understand tumor biology. This approach uses information from various sources such as genomic data, environmental factors, and lifestyle choices to develop a personalised treatment.
The Bottom Line
These proteins play an important role in cancer immunotherapy, providing the tools needed to harness the body’s immune system to fight cancer. Researchers are developing innovative ways to target cancer more precisely and effectively using checkpoint inhibitors, CAR-T therapies, and apoptosis proteins. The future of cancer immunotherapy looks promising, with breakthroughs on the horizon that will continue to improve treatment outcomes for patients.
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