Researchers from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion have identified a unique genetic signature in T cells of cancer patients, which could help predict response to immunotherapy and improve its effectiveness.
Immunotherapy is considered one of the greatest revolutions in cancer treatment. It is an innovative therapeutic approach that enhances the immune system's ability to destroy cancer cells in a targeted and effective manner. Advances in the field of immunotherapy led to the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine being awarded to Tesuko Honjo and Prof. James Allison (who previously won the Harvey Prize from the Technion).
One of the main problems with immunotherapy treatments is the uncertainty regarding patient response – not all patients respond to treatment, and some may even suffer from side effects without any real benefit. Therefore, there is a need to identify biomarkers that will help in early prediction of the effectiveness of the treatment, based on the physiological data of the specific patient.
New and hopeful discoveries in this context are now presented in an article by Technion researchers in the prestigious journal Cell GenomicsThe The study was led by Prof. Keren Yitzhak and doctoral student Ofir Shorer from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Baruch and Ruth Rappaport Cancer Research Center..
The study by Schorr and Prof. Yitzhak is based on a large-scale meta-analysis of single-cell RNA sequencing and T-cell receptor (TCR) sequencing from cancer patients treated with immunotherapy. In this way, genetic characteristics in groups (clones) of T cells were examined and their impact on the success of the treatment. Here are some basic terms essential to understanding the study:
- T cells – white blood cells that play a central role in identifying and destroying cancer cells and protecting the body from external threats such as viruses.
- Groups (clones) of T cells – When T cells recognize a threat, they multiply and form different groups of cells, so that each group contains identical cells that are adapted to combat this threat.
The researchers discovered that such groups of T cells are present in both patients who respond to immunotherapy and those who do not, but among patients who respond to treatment there is a Unique genetic signature In those groups, and immunotherapy increases their immune effectiveness.
Another finding is that among the non-responders alone, there are groups that are present in the tumor but also appear in the blood. The researchers conclude that in order to optimize the immune response, it is necessary to activate (move into action) the groups of T cells that appear only in the tumor, as opposed to the groups that are present in both the tumor and the blood.
As mentioned, one of the challenges in the world of immunotherapy is predicting the response to treatment for a specific patient. The approach presented by the Technion researchers will improve the ability to predict and even allow the development of new approaches that will improve the effectiveness of the treatment itself. In addition, the research findings deepen our knowledge of the dynamics of the immune system and the possibilities of harnessing it to fight cancer – a principle at the heart of immunotherapy.
Prof. Keren Yitzhak She is a faculty member at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. Ofir Shorer He is a graduate of the Technion's Excellence Program and is currently a doctoral student in the prestigious MD/PhD track, which combines a research doctorate with clinical studies. He participated in the study Assaf Pinhasi, is also a doctoral student in Prof. Yitzhak's research group.
The research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Science Foundation (ISF), the Israel Cancer Research Foundation (ICRF), and the Rappaport Institute for Research in Medical Sciences.
for the article in Cell Genomics
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