Researchers from UC Santa Barbara recently solved a mystery that had been unanswered for more than two decades and potentially opened a door to the development of novel immunotherapy protocols against cancer. After examining evidence from fruit flies, mice and humans over several decades, the scientists uncovered the fact that cannibalistic cells may be responsible for a rare human immunodeficiency.
The study’s senior author, Professor Denise Montell, stated that the research used basic cell biology and human pathology to pave the way for a new cancer therapy. Montell is a UC Santa Barbara Duggan professor as well as a distinguished professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology. According to Montell, the study’s main focus was a gene called Rac2, one of the three Rac genes that occur in humans, and Rac2 protein. Rac proteins are involved in building the cell’s cytoskeleton, a kind of scaffolding that is comprised of dynamic filaments that give cells the ability to deform or maintain their shape.
After Montell studied a group of cells in fruit fly ovaries in 1996 and found that Rac proteins played a critical role in cell movement, the scientific consensus is that Rac regulates cell motility in the majority of animal cells.
Abhinava Mishra, the study’s lead author and a project scientist at Montell’s lab, revealed that Montell discovered that hyperactive forms of the Rac1 protein could destroy whole tissue when they were expressed in just a few cells within a fruit fly’s eff chamber. While an active Rac expressed in six to eight cells killed the whole tissue of around 900 cells, Montell admitted that she couldn’t determine why this happened for 25 years.
However, the past couple of years have seen an increase in evidence pointing to cannibalism or cell eating for the tissue destruction. The Rac2 gene plays a role in the cell cannibalism process by helping the eating cell surround the target.
With this evidence in mind, Montell and her team started researching whether a hyperactive form of the protein could cause border cells to consume surrounding cells prematurely. The team found that blocking a receptor that helps border cells spot their targets before expressing the gene prevented cell cannibalism and kept the fruit fly egg chamber healthy.
Although the paper applies to a relatively niche field, its findings may be instrumental in developing treatments for human conditions that occur when a mutation causes the Rac2 protein to become hyperactive. An animal study found that hyperactive Rac2 mutations caused macrophages to consume more T-cells and also made T-cells more susceptible to consumption, resulting in significantly lower T-cell levels.
Montell and her team published their findings in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” journal and are now working to understand the mechanisms of the new immunotherapy approach and its implications in cancer treatment.
As entities such as Renovaro BioSciences Inc. (NASDAQ: RENB) also conduct their own immunotherapy-development programs targeting indications such as cancer, the time may not be long before immunotherapy becomes a viable option for nearly every cancer patient.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Renovaro BioSciences Inc. (NASDAQ: RENB) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/RENB
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