Farming natural killer exosomes to fight cancer
New research published in
Advanced Science from scientists at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and U-M College of Engineering highlights development in cancer-fighting efforts. The research details how the exosomes of natural killer cells (NK cells) can be targeted, harvested, and redirected to attack cancer cells. Exosomes are small sacs of proteins and other molecules that are naturally released by almost every type of cell in the body, says co-author Yoon-Tae Kang, Ph.D. In this case, we wanted to expand our understanding of NK exosomes and try to harness their cancer-killing potential.
Building on the promise of emerging therapies to deploy the body's "natural killer" immune cells to fight cancer, researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and U-M College of Engineering have gone one step further.
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IMAGE: Two large natural killer immune cells are surrounded by their much smaller exosomes on the NK-GO microfluidic chip developed at the University of Michigan. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Yoon-Tae Kang and Zeqi Niu.
Building on the promise of emerging therapies to deploy the body s natural killer immune cells to fight cancer, researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and U-M College of Engineering have gone one step further.
They ve developed what is believed to be the first systematic way to catch natural killer cells and get them to release cancer-killing packets called exosomes. These nano-scale exosomes are thousands of times smaller than natural killer cells or NK cells for short and thus better able to penetrate cancer cells defenses.
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PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Jan. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ New research in the January 2021 issue of
JNCCN Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network finds more than a third of eligible people miss timely screening tests for colorectal cancer and at least a quarter appear to miss timely screening tests for breast and cervical cancers. The study comes from the University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry in Alberta, Canada, with findings based on self-reported results from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) from 2007-2016. According to the author, the results also point to evidence of screening disparities being linked to lower socioeconomic status and identifiable minority race echoing a similar study conducted in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control.
Credit: Michigan Medicine
ANN ARBOR, Michigan Income level, employment, housing location, medical insurance, education, tobacco and alcohol use, diet and obesity, access to medical care. These are some of the factors causing worse cancer outcomes in people who are Black.
The same factors are also causing worse outcomes from COVID-19 in this population. The similarities between COVID-19 issues and cancer disparities is uncanny, says John M. Carethers, M.D., John G. Searle Professor and Chair of Internal Medicine at Michigan Medicine. In cancer we are seeing in slow motion what has been observed rapidly with COVID - that the same conditions in our society put specific groups at risk for both. If we can fundamentally change socioeconomic inequality, we theoretically could reduce disparities in both diseases, says Carethers, who is a member of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center.