The Society of Cancer Management
  • Home
    • An After Life
    • News Archive
  • About
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Notice
  • Contact

. . . supporting research that improves cancer survival.

 
Please contact us if you would like to contribute a news item. We are keen to publish more articles from UK-based research and findings that relate to microbial infections during therapy.

Bacteria protect intestinal tumor model from being killed by immune cells

12/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Bacteria that are commonly found in the mouth are often abundant in patients with colon cancer, but the potential role these microbes play in tumor development is not clear. A study published by Cell Press in the journal Immunity reveals that the oral pathogen Fusobacterium nucleatum protects a variety of tumor cells from being killed by immune cells. The findings could open new avenues for the treatment of cancer in human patients.

"Certain bacteria have previously been shown to fight cancer, so the surprising finding of this paper is that bacteria such as Fusobacterium nucleatum can grant tumors an anti-immune defense mechanism," says co-senior study author Ofer Mandelboim, PhD, of The Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School. "Blocking the interaction between these bacteria and immune cells might improve anti-tumor immunity both in general and with regard to colon cancer in particular."

Immune cells called natural killer cells defend the body against a variety of health threats, including viruses and parasites. These cells can also kill tumors, but cancer cells have evolved ways to evade this immune response. In the early 1890s, a surgeon named William Coley recognized that certain bacteria can enhance anti-tumor immunity, and he even used bacterial extracts to successfully treat cancer patients. But the relationship between bacteria and tumors is complex, and until now, it was not known whether other types of bacteria that are common in cancer patients could have the opposite effect: protecting developing tumors from immune cell attack.
To address this question, Mandelboim teamed up with co-senior author Gilad Bachrach of the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine to study how the anti-cancer activity of natural killer cells might be affected by Fusobacterium nucleatum--an oral pathogen that has been linked to periodontal diseases and is also present in human colorectal tumors.

They found that this bacterium protects a variety of human tumor cells from destruction by human natural killer cells. Moreover, this immune evasion depends on the binding of a bacterial protein called Fap2 to an immune cell receptor called TIGIT. "The implications are that if we either remove the Fusobacterium nucleatum bacteria from the tumors or inhibit TIGIT with antibodies, we might enable immune cells to kill the colon tumors more efficiently," says first author Chamutal Gur of The Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School.

The researchers now intend to test whether this bacterium is found in other types of tumors and whether additional bacteria that colonize tumors affect the activity of immune cells. They also plan to study Fap2-TIGIT interactions in more detail and develop ways to block these interactions. "Because Fusobacterium nucleatum specifically targets tumors, it may be possible in the future to use a Fap2-deleted Fusobacterium nucleatum to guide therapeutic agents to kill the tumors," Mandelboim says.

Gur et al. Binding of the Fap2 protein of Fusobacterium nucleatum to human inhibitory receptor TIGIT protects tumors from immune cell attack.  Immunity. 2015; DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2015.01.010 [Abstract]
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Cancer Therapy & Palliative Care News

    This feed features recent developments in cancer therapy and palliative care. Views in these articles do not necessarily represent those of the Cancer Management Society.

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All
    General
    Presentation
    Research
    Review

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Contact Us

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

Copyright Notice

RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
© The Society of Cancer Management 2017