Conquering cancer with implants? Bioengineered vaccines and magnetic nanodiscs show promise

Rather than surgically removing tumors, what if doctors could simply implant new tools in our bodies to do the work internally? One team of researchers has been able to vanquish tumors in mice by implanting bioengineered disks filled with tumor-specific antigens, and another has developed magnetized nanodiscs to induce cancer cells to destroy themselves.

Numerous cancer vaccines have shown promise in animal models only to later fail to generate results in humans. But an implant-based approach may hold the key, according to a team of immunologists and bioengineers at Harvard University. They designed a tiny polymer disk saturated with dendritic cells and antigens specifically tuned to go after tumor cells. The results, published online November 25 in Science Translational Medicine, show “the power of applying engineering approaches to immunology,” David Mooney, a professor of bioengineering ant Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said in a prepared statement.

The principal is the same as a vaccine: prompt the immune system to attack invading cells. However, unlike previously tested injected cancer vaccines, cells from the disk are less prone to die before they can get the job done.

The 8.5-millimeter biodegradable disk can be “inserted anywhere under the skin—much like the implantable contraceptives that can be placed in a woman’s arm,” Mooney said. “The implants activate an immune response that destroys tumor cells.” When the disks were implanted in mice with melanoma, the treatment led to remission and longer lives in “a substantial portion of the population,” the authors reported.

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Tags: antigens, cancer cells, cancer vaccine, cancer vaccines, conquering cancer, dendritic cells, engineered vaccines, immune response, immunologists, magnetic nanodiscs, remission, tumor cells, tumours

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 7:33 pm and is filed under Cutting-edge Research, Health, Innovation, Medicine, Nanotech, Scientific American, Shape of Things to Come?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.