In the fight against cancer, immunotherapy—which aims to boost the body’s natural defenses against cancer—is experiencing remarkable growth. Most of these treatments are based on CD8 T lymphocytes, “killer cells” able to eliminate diseased cells. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has explored an alternative approach involving CD4 T lymphocytes.
Long considered mere auxiliary cells, their therapeutic potential has been considered of secondary importance. But the scientists have discovered that they also have a strong killing capacity, while continuing to support other immune cells. Using cell engineering technologies, the team reprogrammed the cells to target a tumor marker found in many cancers, both in adults and children. These results, published in the journal Science Advances, offer hope for a faster therapeutic strategy that could benefit a greater number of patients.
Traditionally considered as auxiliary cells, CD4 T cells produce molecules to support the action of other immune cells by facilitating their functions, migration or proliferation in the organism. The recent work by Camilla Jandus, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology, in the Center for Inflammation Research and in the Translational Research Center in Onco-hematology at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, shows that they have been vastly underestimated.
