Benefits of Immunotherapy from advances in immunology and recombinant DNA technology.
Immunotherapy is a form of medical treatment intended to stimulate or restore the ability of the immune system to fight infection and disease. This can be by inducing, enhancing, or suppressing an immune response. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while those that reduce or suppress immune response are suppression immunotherapies. Active immunotherapy has been effective against agents that normally cause acute self-limiting infectious disease. However, a more effective immunotherapy for chronic infectious diseases or cancer requires the use of appropriate target antigens; the
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Advances in the understanding of the molecular and cellular immunological mechanisms and recombinant DNA technology have led to the development of new immunotherapic therapies for disease conditions.
Immunology basically involves understanding the immune system and how it responds to various disease conditions. the immune system consists of a number of components. Traditionally, it is divided into humoral and cellular immune responses. It can also be distinguished into innate and adaptive immunity. The innate immunity can discriminate between normal tissues , self and newly encountered non-self-proteins while the adaptive immunity is the more complex system aimed at the eradication of intracellular pathogens. To do this, antigen derived from such pathogens that are often new to the host organism, need to be recognised by receptor-bearing specialised immune cells which respond to a complex system of stimulatory and costimulatory signals. Better understanding of the human immune system has led to the identification of a number of tumor-associated antigens in the 1980s and the development of various immunotherapeutic approaches. In recent years, identification of the specific antigenic MHC class I epitopes, advancements in genetic engineering, gene delivery, and cell-based therapeutic approaches allowed development of the novel immunotherapeutics.
In other words, it specifically triggers immune responses pertaining to the mesothelioma malignancy or targets the cancer cells at hand. Active immunotherapy excites an immune response by presenting antigens to the immune system for a response against the malignancy itself. Although the mesothelioma malignancy has a unique set of cells, the tumor does not always produce antigens. This results in the use of an antigen precursor protein called Mesothelin, which allows these antigens to form around the tumor in hopes to specifically target the malignancy site. On the other hand, passive immunotherapy does just the opposite. Passive immunotherapy does not induce an immune response; it simply and directly targets the malignancy by injecting “immune compounds that attack the cancer such as antibodies, cytokines, T cells and macrophages” (Selby). Non-specific immunotherapy injects cells that inhibit the growth of the tumor cells, preventing those cells from constant reproduction. These cells that are injected cooperate directly with the malignancy and are known as cytokines, lymphokine-activated killer cells and macrophages. Immunotherapies such as active, passive and non-specific passive all are becoming effective therapies for mesothelioma and are indicative of improving the patient’s
According to Rosenberg (1988), the field of immunotherapy has become an area of significant and increasing interest within the field of medical science, prompted by the recent advances in knowledge of both biotechnology and cellular immunology. The field of immunology has produced revolutionary developments such as vaccines, which have prevented and decreased the occurrence of numerous infectious diseases over the past two centuries (Oviedo-Orta et al. 2013). Vaccine development has in turn combined immunology and drug design, resulting in a great deal of innovation over the last four decades endeavouring to expand the benefit of immunology past vaccines against foreign pathogens, and towards the treatment of chronic debilitating diseases.
Many researchers are currently studying immunotherapy by vaccination to elicit an effective anti-tumor immune response to delay or eliminate tumor progression. The aim of this therapy is to elicit CD8+ T cells that recognize the peptide-MHC class 1 molecule on the tumor antigens and cause tumor cell death by increase secretion of granzyme and perforin. For an ideal anti-tumor immune response atleast 4 components of the immune system need to be present: appropriate mature dendritic cells; activation of CD4 T cells, elimination of T regulatory cells; and inhibition of the immunosuppressive immune
Immunotherapy for cancer treatment has had tremendous growth recently with increased awareness and knowledge of the immune system and potential means to manipulate it for therapeutic intent. Progress in the treatment of viral infections including CMV, EBV, HHV-6, utilization of immune checkpoint blockade for melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, and Hodgkin Lymphoma, as well as rapid emergence of genetically modified T cells against CD19+ B cells have contributed to the growth in this area.Antibody-targeted therapy has now become standard of care for many malignancies, and the multi-domain utilization of antigen-specific adoptive T-cell therapy has shown great promises. 4 While our understanding of B cell and T cell and our ability to
Cancer is defined as a category of diseases that consist of cells in the human body dividing at an unstoppable rate and result in spreading to surrounding tissue creating tumors. Cancer affects approximately 14 million people and result in 8.2 million deaths as of 2012. However, researches continue to try and develop many kinds of treatments for cancer patients and aim to find a cure for this monstrous disease. Immunotherapy is one of the treatment options that involve the use of chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) T-cells to attack and destroy the cancer cells. The process of Immunotherapy began in 1976 as a method to create a vaccine using cowpox to prevent smallpox. However, the use of immunotherapy as a treatment for cancer patients began
Active immunization is the administering of pathogenic antigens to an individual in the hopes that the person will actively build up their immune system to attack the antigens whenever they reappear in the body. These are usually given in various forms of vaccinations such as an attenuated, inactivated, toxoid, combination, and recombinant gene vaccination. These vaccines provide long-term protection that can be used repeatedly. The only downside to this method of protection is that this form of immunity takes some time to build and requires multiple inoculations to achieve a high level of effectiveness. Passive immunotherapy is the administration of antigens to an individual via the blood serum
The vaccine given to the children contained live but sufficiently weakened or attenuated viruses to stimulate immune response. The capacity to stimulate immune response was from the ability of human immune system to distinguish non-self cells that carry epitopes. First, the immune B cells with antibody would bind and engulf to process the attenuated virus. Then, helper T cells would bind to the processed virus and form plasma cell. The plasma cells then stimulate the production of more antibodies to mark virus for destruction. After destruction, some of the B cells and helper T cells left form memory cells to produce immediate response to 2nd attack of the same viruses.
The TIL’s that strongly exhibit the ability to recognize a patients tumor cells are selected to be grown in large quantities in a laboratory then activated by cytokines and infused back into the patient. The ex vivo lymphocytes reinserted back into the bloodstream are accompanied with growth factors to help ensure the cells survival and expansion. In comparison to other forms of immunotherapy, ACT can provide several advantages for their application such as only a small number of TIL’s are needed to be identified then expanded for treatment as well as tests done in vitro can determine the precise populations and functions needed for cancer regression. The ability to manipulate a host’s environment before reinfusing activated T lymphocytes, providing an ideal environment for those transferred cells, also provide a significant
So what exactly is the relation between cancer and the immune system inasmuch as "immunotherapy" is concerned? The importance of the immune system in fighting cancer has been known for decades and even some of the more advanced techniques in immunotherapy date back to the 1970s. In this article we explore how the immune system and its components can bolster the body 's fight against cancer or to augment radiation and/or chemotherapy. We will also explain both conventional and alternative medicine views of immunotherapy - and explain how to evaluate specialized cancer treatment centers, worldwide, to best suit your needs.
The human immune system is constantly undergoing changes because of the pathogens that are trying to invade the body. Once the pathogens cross your initial barriers your body has a second defence that comes into play. This is your immune system which is composed of your innate and adaptive immunity. Innate immunity has two line of defense, the first line starting with the skin and mucosal membranes, these create barrier to try and fight off pathogens entering the body. The second line is an internal response consisting of many types of phagocytes, and chemicals and physiological processes which fight against pathogens (pg 854 Textbook). Meanwhile adaptive immunity is a response that has multiple cells that work to fight off specific pathogens. These cells start off as simple T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes. T-lymphocytes go through a process when identifying a pathogen and eventually form cytotoxic T- lymphocytes and helper T-lymphocytes. When B- lymphocytes cross a pathogen they form into plasma cells in order to release antibodies and target (textbook pg 864). These two immunities play a big role in providing a healthy defense after vaccination is injected to allow the body to be immuned to
One of the most important response systems we have as animals is that of our immune system and its response to invading pathogens, antigens, and it’s rejection of foreign material. The details behind the functioning of this response went largely overlooked from a genetic perspective primarily until the early 1970’s however. Baruj Benacerraf with his collaborators Jean Dausset and George Davis Snell explored just this, publishing a series of findings that lead to the “…discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface protein molecules important for the immune system 's distinction between self and non-self” ("Baruj Benacerraf - Biographical") which eventually lead to their winning and sharing of the Nobel Peace prize in Physiology or Medicine. Early that decade he and Hugh O. McDevitt published an article on the Histocompatibility-Linked Immune Response Genes. Working from the discovery of autosomal genes correlating to antibody synthesis with dominant phenotypes of capable of producing the responding antibodies to an antigen and responses to “non-self” cells such as grafts, their studies explored injecting guinea pigs with a variety of antigens to identify distinct immune response genes. To clarify, The American Heritage® Science Dictionary defines histocompatibility as “A state or condition in which the absence of immunological interference permits the grafting of tissue or the transfusion of blood without rejection”. Thusly this
Immunotherapy is a newer form of cancer research in which the treatments allow the immune system to detect and attack the cancer cells. According to the National Cancer Institute website, immunotherapy is a newer form of cancer treatment, which is being used in many different ways to target the multiple forms of cancer, as treatments may vary from patient to patient though they have the same type of cancer. One method of immunotherapy uses medicine to stop the release of certain proteins that would otherwise stop the immune system from attacking the cancerous cells. This method is used with tumours that secrete these proteins that normally stop the immune system from attacking healthy cells. Another method of immunotherapy, called adoptive
There are cons of the DNA vaccine but also pros, so another aspect came up among several researchers is that it is worth to continue its research to develop the DNA vaccine-derived other scientific methods and ideas. One of most important facts for the DNA vaccine to develop is its delivery approach. To improve more effective way, scientists enhanced the knowledge of new molecular adjuvants and understanding of the T-helper types of immune responses (Kutzler & Weiner, 2008). Researching time and cost will not be wasted.
Our immune system is the second most complex system in our body. It is made up of organs, cells and proteins that work together to protect our bodies from harmful bacteria, viruses or other microorganisms that can cause diseases. Usually we don’t notice our immune system defending us against pathogens, but if the pathogen (harmful microorganism) is aggressive or if our body hasn’t ever come into contact with it, we can get sick. The jobs of our immune system are to recognise pathogens, as well as neutralise and remove them from our body. Our immune system also has to fight our own cells if they have changed due to an illness, for example, cancer. (1)
When mammalian DNA is injected into the body, dendritic cells are not stimulated. Moreover, it also failed to elicit appreciable antibody response even when it coupled with a protein carrier and presented in adjuvant (Madaio et al., 1984). This failed action is quite the opposite of animal disease models that are stimulated by immunization with protein auto-antigens such as experimental allergic encephalomyelitis or collagen-induced arthritis, inferring that DNA is different from other biomolecules in its immunological properties. Various studies, including from our lab (Dixit et al., 2005; Tripathi et al., 2014) as well as from others (Al Arfaj et al., 2007) propose that the DNA molecule undertake structural changes leading to the formation of new epitopes or neo-epitopes that are recognized as foreign by the immune system and are able to bring out antibody responses. However, when single stranded DNA is used for immunization, it can bring a restricted antibody response, and other helical nucleic acid species including double stranded RNA, RNA-DNA hybrids, carcinogen or drug modified DNA or complexes of DNA with proteins that can bind DNA are considered to be effective immunogens (Stollar, 1975; Anderson et al., 1988; Desai et al., 1993; Moinuddin and Ali, 1994; Dixit et al., 2005; Khan et al., 2006; Tripathi et al., 2013). Due to the presence of distinctive sequence motifs, bacterial DNA can induce the immune system to generate antibodies to sequential rather that backbone