To grow and spread, cancer cells must evade the immune system. Investigators from Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital and MIT used the power of nanotechnology to discover a new way that cancer can disarm its would-be cellular attackers by extending out nanoscale tentacles that can reach into an immune cell and pull out its powerpack. Slurping out the immune cell\u2019s mitochondria powers up the cancer cell and depletes the immune cell. The new findings, published in Nature Nanotechnology, could lead to new targets for developing the next generation of immunotherapy against cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cCancer kills when the immune system is suppressed and cancer cells are able to metastasize, and it appears that nanotubes can help them do both,\u201d said corresponding author Shiladitya Sengupta, PhD, co-director of the Brigham\u2019s Center for Engineered Therapeutics. \u201cThis is a completely new mechanism by which cancer cells evade the immune system and it gives us a new target to go after.\u201d<\/p>\n
To investigate how cancer cells and immune cells interact at the nanoscale level, Sengupta and colleagues set up experiments in which they co-cultured breast cancer cells and immune cells, such as T cells.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cancer cells use \u2018tiny tentacles\u2019 to suppress the immune system https:\/\/t.co\/ooEpm6FhIh<\/a>#science<\/a><\/p>\n — Bioengineer.org (@bioengineerorg) November 18, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n