Cancer vaccine target pinpointed - BBC News

Scientists may be one measure closer to producing a specific targeted vaccine for killing malignant neoplastic disease cells.

UK research workers have got pinpointed a protein on immune cells which they trust will assist them harness the body's defense mechanisms to assail a tumour.

A vaccine designed to "home in" on the protein would present a message to the immune system to assail the invading cancer, they said.

The research is published in the Diary of Clinical Investigation.

The protein is alone to a type of immune cell called a dendritic cell, which is responsible for triggering the body's defense mechanism system.

The consequences of this research are an of import measure towards apprehension how to make targeted malignant neoplastic disease vaccines in the future

Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK

Its occupation is to show pathogens or foreign molecules to other cells of the immune system, which in bend get rid of them.

The squad at Cancer Research UK's Greater London Research Institute said men of science have got been searching for proteins or "tags" on dendritic cells for over 30 years.

In theory a vaccine carrying a foreign molecule from a malignant neoplastic disease cell could be targeted to the dendritic cells, which would then motivate the immune system to assail the "invading" cancer. The same attack could be used for treating human immunodeficiency virus or malaria, the research workers said.

T cell army

Study leader Dr Caetano Reis vitamin E John Philip Sousa said the squad had establish a alone protein called DNGR-1, which could be used to present such as a vaccine to the door of the dendritic cell.

"Vaccines work by triggering an regular army of immune cells, called Deoxythymidine Monophosphate cells, to assail potentially unsafe foreign molecules, like those establish on pathogens.

"Dendritic cells are the messengers, telling the Deoxythymidine Monophosphate cells who to attack.

"Vaccines will transport a sample of the offending molecule and show it to DNGR-1 on the dendritic cells, which in bend will present the molecule to the regular armies of Deoxythymidine Monophosphate cells and instruct them to attack."

Cancer Research UK's manager of malignant neoplastic disease information, Dr Lesley Walker, said: "Developing treatments that accurately aim malignant neoplastic disease and have got few serious side-effects is one of Cancer Research UK's top goals.

"The consequences of this research are an of import measure towards apprehension how to make targeted malignant neoplastic disease vaccines in the future."