As tumors grow, they skillfully evade the body’s immune response. Cancer cells multiply quickly, forming a dense mass of tissue and vasculature that becomes increasingly difficult for immune cells to infiltrate, and they begin to pump out molecules that suppress immune cell function.
In some cancer patients, just outside the tumor, many immune cells function normally. Dendritic cells capture antigens on the tumor’s surface and launch an immune cascade, marking cancer cells for destruction—but often not at the rate necessary to halt tumor growth.
In a paper published January 20 in Nature Biomedical Engineering, scientists report using a combination of modified Salmonella bacteria and radiation to enhance the body’s natural immune response against tumors in mice. The researchers injected the Salmonella into tumors to capture antigens and shuttle them out, making the antigens accessible to immune cells.
“I thought the study was really innovative,” Andrew Redenti, a graduate student in ...
