Researchers have leveraged childhood immunity to tetanus in order to target treatment-resistant pancreatic cancer, according to a new study published this week (March 23) in Science Translational Medicine. Using an inert, nontoxic species of Listeria bacteria, scientists were able to deliver benign tetanus proteins into pancreatic tumor cells in mice, thereby flagging them as foreign to circulating memory immune cells. Following the treatment, both the original tumor and those that had metastasized shrank significantly, and the mice lived longer as a result.
“I’m extremely excited. [The result] feels terrific. We’re very close to a clinical trial,” Claudia Gravekamp, an immunologist and microbiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine who led the study, tells STAT News.
Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat for several reasons. The cancerous cells often lack the mutational vulnerabilities exploited by current pharmaceutical therapies. Tumors also often grow and metastasize before the onset of symptoms. And ...
