For a long time, scientists have wondered why many individuals that have several risk factors linked to cancer development never develop the disease while some people without any of these risk factors go on to develop cancer.
A team of researchers strongly thinks autoantibodies could provide major insights into why this happens, and they are planning to conduct studies aimed at understanding how autoantibodies influence the likelihood of cancer development, the progression of the disease, and how immune function is shaped in response to cancer development.
The team, led by Doctor Laurent Casanova, has done extensive work on autoantibodies, immune proteins that bind to different molecules like the proteins found on viruses, bacteria and other pathogens. These auto-Abs (autoantibodies) can mark cells for destruction by other immune cells, or they can kill the foreign or target cells themselves.
In some cases, auto-Abs cause the body to attack healthy tissues, as is the case in individuals who develop autoimmune conditions. Casanova and his team have identified twelve auto-Abs that bind to cytokines, and they now want to undertake a project aimed at finding out whether there are autoantibodies that could be influential in preventing cancer development or supporting its growth.
Their work is motivated by existing data linking auto-Abs to several infectious diseases and inflammatory conditions. For example, these molecules were found to play a part in patients that didn’t experience a cytokine storm while infected by SARS-CoV-2. Cytokine storms were found to play a major role in the severity and mortality linked to COVID-19.
Casanova’s team will recruit a large number of study participants that will include healthy individuals, people who have high-risk factors for cancer (heavy smokers, for example), people that are a hundred or more years old but have never developed cancer, and children.
The purpose of this investigation is to look into what specific auto-Abs exist in those individuals and analyze what role those molecules play in either preventing the people from developing cancer or helping to fuel the progression of the disease.
Previous work on studying how different immune cells work has helped in the development of novel treatments like immune checkpoint inhibitor treatments against cancer and CAR-T therapy. It is hoped that by getting a better understanding of how autoantibodies influence the risk of cancer development and how the immune system responds, doors could be opened to the development of better or more personalized cancer treatments and prevention measures.
Immunotherapy is a rapidly progressing field, and the list of available immune therapies is increasing year by year as enterprises like Calidi Biotherapeutics Inc. (NYSE American: CLDI) focus on addressing the shortcomings that have been observed in the immunotherapies that have so far been commercialized. These shortcomings include the limited number of patients who benefit from these treatments, and the high cost of developing personalized immunotherapies.
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