Hope for a disease that is usually a death sentence provided Trump-RFK Jr. don't kill the research
By Case Western Reserve University. Edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan
 |
| (National Cancer Institute) |
Now, researchers at Case Western Reserve University and
Cleveland Clinic are developing vaccines targeting pancreatic cancer that
could eliminate the disease, leaving a patient cancer-free. So far, the
vaccines have achieved dramatic results in studies with preclinical models.
Biomedical engineer Zheng-Rong (ZR) Lu has been elated by
the response in preclinical models of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC),
the most common form of the disease.
"Pancreatic cancer is super aggressive," said Lu,
the M. Frank Rudy and Margaret C. Rudy Professor of Biomedical Engineering in
the Case School of Engineering. "So it came as a surprise that our
approach works so well."
More than half were completely cancer-free months later, a
result he said he hadn't seen before.
Lu teamed with immunologist Li Lily Wang, an associate professor of molecular medicine at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, to develop vaccine nanoparticles containing antigens—markers that identify for the immune system whether something in the body is harmful. The vaccines they've developed produce anti-cancer immunity.
"This platform has the potential to transform clinical care for
this devastating disease," said Wang, also a staff member in translational
hematology and oncology research at Cleveland Clinic. "I am excited to see
that our novel nano-vaccine worked so well in eliciting vigorous responses from
tumor-reactive T cells—which are typically low in numbers and unable to
control tumor
growth."
For more than two decades, Lu has been working with
nanoparticles comprised of fats, called lipids, which are well tolerated and
can be used to deliver drugs and vaccines because they are compatible with
living tissue.
PDAC tumors are often comprised of cells with various
mutations. To produce anti-tumor immunity to these different mutations, the
researchers engineered antigens to the most commonly mutated oncogenes, which
drive the overgrowth of cells in cancer. These antigens stimulate and train the
patients' immune system to destroy tumor cells, the researchers explained.
Rather than personalizing medicine for individuals, these
vaccines would be effective for many PDAC patients, the researchers hope. The
anti-cancer nanoparticles would be injected on a three-dose schedule.
The researchers plan to combine the vaccine therapy with
an immune
checkpoint inhibitor, which boosts the body's immune response by keeping
tumor cells from turning off the immune cells that would otherwise destroy
them. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are approved to treat several types of
cancers, often in combination with other treatments, boosting their
effectiveness.
Lu said the vaccines could potentially be used to prevent
PDAC in patients who might be susceptible to developing the disease because
they carry certain mutations.
"We've shown that our vaccine generated
immune memory in preclinical models," Lu said. "If we could do that
in patients, we could prevent PDAC before tumors start forming, so the vaccines
could be either therapeutic or preventative."
The researchers aim to further explore the therapeutic use
of vaccines in preclinical models of PDAC. Lu hopes to collaborate with
industry on demonstrations of safety in other models before moving to clinical
trials in human patients.
Jordan M. Winter, professor of surgery, and Akram Salah
Shalaby, assistant professor of pathology, both at the medical school, are
co-investigators. All the researchers are members of the Case Comprehensive
Cancer Center.
Provided by Case
Western Reserve University
