Cancer Killing Cells Discovered, Can Be Injected Into Patient
Researcher from Japan were indulge in this discovery from a long time and finally they have created a cancer-specific killer T cells. It is expected that injecting huge quantities back into a patient could turbo-change the immune system however the cells occurs naturally in small number.
London: Scientists for the first time have developed a cancer-killing cell which can be directly injected into patients.
According to the researchers at the RIKEN research Centre for Allergy and immunology, after a long time research finally for the first time they havesucceededin creating the cancer specific immune system cells known as T lyphocytes, reported by Daily Mail.
Starting to the revolutionary discovery, the team reprogrammed the T lymphocytes which have the capability of killing a certain type of cancer, into another type of cell called iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells). These iPS is basically generated from the T lymphocytes, which can be regenerated from iPS cells. This iPS cells has the potential to serve as cancer therapy in the future.
Earlier the researcher produced the T lymphocytes using conventional methods but it failed in killing cancer cells mainly because of its short life span. This was the drawback of the T cells as it limit its use as treatment for cancer. But it was not the stop, soon researchers found a solution to overcome the drawback. They reprogrammed the T lymphocytes into iPS cells and investigate the further effect.
The team reprogrammed killer T lymphocytes into iPS cells by exposing it to the `Yamanaka factors` - a group of compounds that induce cells to revert to a non-specialized, stage. After then, these cells were grown in the lab and induced. Also the new T lymphocytes were shown to be active and give anti-tumorcompound.
The next step from the researcher is to check whether these T cells can selectively killtumorcells without disturbing the other cells of the body as if it does, these cells can be directly injected into the patient. The feasibility will be confirmed in near future.
