New Technique Could Reveal Immunotherapy Targets
Researchers at Stanford Medicine have developed a new way to determine targets for cancer treatments based on a patient’s immune system. The team used years of structural and protein engineering studies to better understand how the immune system “sees” antigens. Based on this knowledge, they developed a technique to identify them.
The technique could serve to identify potential antigens relevant to other immunotherapies, such as those that combat autoimmune or infectious diseases.
The whole foundation of immunotherapy depends on immune cells recognizing specific antigens on tumor cells. That’s the basis of the actual killing event — where the rubber hits the road,” said Christopher Garcia, PhD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology and of structural biology. “But currently we know very few tumor antigens, and there’s just been no good way of discovering them.” Here, he said, is where he sees potential for a new biochemical screen to expedite the identification process.
Funding: The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant R01AI103867), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
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