Scientists identify new potential targets for immunotherapy for melanoma

  Recently, in a research report published in the international journal Clinical Cancer Research, scientists from QIMR Berghofer Institute of Medical Research and other institutions revealed why some patients with melanoma did not respond well to immunotherapy, and related research results may be able to Help researchers develop new targeted therapies for potentially fatal cancers.

  Australia is the country with the highest incidence of melanoma in the world. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates that last year, more than 15,000 people were diagnosed with melanoma in Australia and more than 1,700 people died. In this study, the researchers found that a special protein called CD155 in human melanoma cells may make skin cancer more difficult to treat with immunotherapy. The researchers revealed the effectiveness of CD155 in immunotherapy for patients with metastatic melanoma. Importance, and this has not been found in the human organism before.

  Tumors seem to use CD155 molecules to evade the pursuit of immune T cells, and at the same time resist the killing of immunotherapy; CD155 protein can be expressed in almost all cancer cells, but it is less expressed in normal cells, including some immune cells Etc., which are part of the family of adhesive proteins that are very important for cell-cell interactions. Researcher Smyth said that current immunotherapy can successfully help untie the immune system to kill melanoma cells, but in some patients, tumor cells will still hide and make the therapy ineffective, ultimately leading to patient death. The high level of CD155 in melanoma cells seems to help tumors avoid detection by T cells and can trick T cells from touching the tumor. During the interaction, the CD155 of the tumor seems to damage T cells, reduce their recognition and kill tumor cells The ability to reduce the level of tumor CD155 in patients with metastatic melanoma can be used as a new method to improve the treatment efficiency of immunotherapy and save more patients’ lives.

  In the article, the researchers used new imaging techniques to analyze pre-treatment tumor samples collected from the patient's body, and then they linked the tumor CD155 level to the patient's prognosis. The researchers said that the imaging results showed high levels of CD155 in melanoma And patients with high levels of CD155 are often in poor health and do not respond to immunotherapy; therefore, the level of CD155 may make cancer cells appear immune evasion, and T cells cannot kill tumors because the CD155 protein will make T cells are imbalanced and shut down their functions before they take effect; there is currently no therapeutic method for melanoma that can target CD155. Therefore, researchers hope to in-depth research and develop new immunotherapies to target CD155 protein. Inhibit the development of tumors.