Kyoto team creates ‘killer T cells’ that fight cancer without immune reaction – The Mainichi – The Mainichi

Kyoto University's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application is seen in this file photo taken in January 2016. (Mainichi/Tetsuro Hatakeyama)

OSAKA -- A Kyoto University-led research team has succeeded in producing "killer T cells" from iPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells, which can efficiently suppress cancer without causing an immune reaction, providing hope for development of cancer immunotherapy treatments.

The team led by Shin Kaneko, a specialist in immune regeneration therapy at Kyoto University's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, successfully confirmed the process in experiments on mice.

In cancer treatment, a method known as CAR-T therapy, in which T cells that attack foreign substances are transplanted into the body, has already been put into practical use and is drawing attention. The main approach with this treatment method is to take T cells from the patient's blood, introduce a gene allowing them to easily recognize cancer, and then return them to the patient's body. The problem with this, however, is that T cells don't easily replicate in the body, and the treatment cost is high.

While it is feasible to create T cells from iPS cells, which can be produced in large quantities, concerns remain that T cells created from third-party derived iPS cells in stock could trigger rejection in the body.

Kaneko and other researchers on the team genetically modified iPS cells using genome-editing technology so they wouldn't be attacked by the patient's own immune cells. This enabled them to produce T cells that do not trigger a rejection response in the body.

In experiments on mice, the team found that these T cells were not easily eliminated from the body. Furthermore, cancerous tumors were reduced to up to about one-ninth of the size they were compared to when T cells that hadn't been genetically modified were used, and the tumors were no longer detected after 10 days.

"This can be used on many patients," Kaneko said of the method of lessening rejection through genetic manipulation. "It's possible it could be applied not just with T cells, but in transplantation medicine using other cells derived from iPS cells."

The results of the group's research were published in the British science journal Nature on May 17.

(Japanese original by Koki Matsumoto, Osaka Science & Environment News Department)

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Kyoto team creates 'killer T cells' that fight cancer without immune reaction - The Mainichi - The Mainichi