Yale researchers have made a breakthrough in understanding how the immune system interacts with tumor cells and its role in cancer progression. Their innovative technique involves recreating patients’ specific tumor microenvironments in mice, allowing for more detailed and personalized study.
To achieve this, the researchers used a mouse line specially developed for cancer research and made a genetic tweak. They swapped the gene that encodes for the immune molecule interleukin-6 for the human version. This alteration significantly increased the engraftability of human immune cells in the mice, providing a more accurate representation of the human immune system.
The method involves collecting a modest number of immune precursor cells from patients’ bone marrow samples to reconstitute their immune systems in the mice. Additionally, tumor tissue from the same patient can be grown in the mice, enabling personalized modeling of an individual’s tumor and immune system.
The technique has already demonstrated success in studying multiple types of cancer, including melanoma, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, pancreatic cancer, and colon cancer. It serves as an improved platform for investigating how the tumor microenvironment influences cancer growth and how individual differences affect this process.
Notably, this approach may also have implications for treatment. By giving a patient’s immune and tumor cells to mice and then testing various treatments, researchers can gain insight into how the patient may respond to different therapies. This method is even being used to screen new drug combinations to increase the effectiveness of existing treatments.
The ability to study cancer in a more biologically and genetically relevant way will greatly advance our understanding of interpersonal differences in cancer progression and treatment response. This breakthrough has the potential to revolutionize cancer research and contribute to more personalized and effective treatments in the future.
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