Technion researchers in collaboration with the Ella Melanoma Institute at the Sheba Medical Center developed a method for predicting the ability of the immune system to react against cancer cells. They found, with the help of a computer, the best combination of white blood cells to fight the disease; The research was chosen by the editors of the prestigious scientific journal "Science" as being of great importance in the field of systemic biology
The Technion researchers succeeded in developing an innovative method for predicting the ability of white blood cells to react against cancer cells. The new method allows a new ability to manipulate the patient's response so that it is more effective. Their research is published in the latest issue of the scientific journal "Molecular Systems Biology" and is included in the "Editor's Choice" of the prestigious scientific journal "Science". The application of the method in laboratory experiments conducted on samples from 12 cancer patients improved the function of the white blood cells in ten of them.
"Several groups in the world have been developing an innovative treatment approach in the field of cancer immunotherapy in recent years," explains Professor Yoram Reiter from the Faculty of Biology at the Technion.
"In this approach, the researchers and doctors take white blood cells from the patient that are produced naturally and specifically against the cancer cells, multiply them in the laboratory to very large quantities, and return them to the patient's body. This is how they try to improve his immune system. The problem is that in most patients those white blood cells do not react well against the cancer cells." The basic understanding of the mechanisms that dictate an effective response are unknown.
Doctoral student Kafir Oved hypothesized that what dictates the activity of this culture of the white blood cells, is a certain composition of subpopulations. In practice, the white blood cell population consists of a very large number of interacting subpopulations. Each of them has a kind of "identity card" that consists of a large number of protein markers that are on the surface of the white blood cells. In order to locate these subpopulations, Kafir Oved, in collaboration with the Ella Institute for the Treatment of Melanoma at the Sheba Medical Center headed by Dr. Yaakov Schechter and Dr. Michal Baser, collected information on more than sixty different markers. Each subpopulation of white blood cells can present a different combination of markers and therefore the number of possibilities is enormous. The only way to decipher this complex information comes from the world of computer science.
The research involved a team whose expertise is in the field of systems biology and bioinformatics, which included doctoral students Eran Aden from the Weizmann Institute, Martin Ackerman from the Technion, and researchers Dr. Yael Mandel-Gutfreund from the Faculty of Biology at the Technion and Prof. Uri Alon from the Weizmann Institute. Eran Eden and Kafir Oved developed an algorithm that looked for the commonality of cultures that respond to the cancerous tumor, in contrast to those that do not. As mentioned, only a computer can do this, since there are millions of different combinations. Indeed, the computer was able to identify a unique identity card consisting of 5-7 signs, which, depending on their presence or absence on the surface of the blood cells - can predict whether they will react to the cancer or not. Most of the markers have a biological activity related to the response capacity of these immune cells.
Using the algorithm developed by the Technion researchers, 90 samples were taken from 26 patients and the computer made a prediction with a degree of accuracy of more than 90%, whether the culture would respond to the tumor or not. Next, we will make another important step in the research. The researchers were able to remove from the culture, based on the information they received, cells with a negative effect. At the same time, the cells with the positive effect multiplied. In ten out of 12 patients the cultures became fully reactive to reactive.
"This is a breakthrough in the application of systems biology and bioinformatics to understand complex biological processes," says Professor Reiter. "A patent has been registered and now the possibility of medical application of the method is being examined." About thirty patients have already been treated in Sheba with the technology of isolating the white blood cells from the tumor and then returning them in large quantities with very encouraging initial results, therefore the technology of selecting the most suitable white blood cells has an immediate applicability in Sheba.
More on the subject on the science website
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Try under laboratory conditions treating cancer cells with the chemical Cl. According to my experience, it stops development
the tumor.
Thanks for the article. But in the 2000s there is no place for a sentence like "only a computer can do this" since computers are integrated in the overwhelming majority of research.
About 20 years ago they stopped being surprised by that.
Is the method of identifying specific blood cells also useful for other types of cancer besides skin cancer