Israeli scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have developed a breakthrough in cellular immunotherapy that could revolutionize cancer treatment. This innovative approach significantly enhances the growth and killing power of T cells—the body’s natural immune system “soldiers”—used to fight cancer. By accelerating the division of T cells in the lab without exhausting them, the treatment preserves their ability to effectively destroy cancer cells. This patented method, currently being tested in collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center in the U.S., offers hope for the next generation of cancer therapies, particularly for patients with limited treatment options.

Israel's cutting-edge research continues to lead the way in advanced cancer therapies, making the country a key destination for medical innovation and treatment.

Article source: Ynet News, Published 11/9/24

Israeli Immunotherapy Innovation: Strengthening Immune System “Soldiers” Against Cancer

Objective: Enhance the lethality of T cells in their "battles" against cancer cells.
Method: Rapid division of T cells without exhausting them or reducing their efficiency. How can all this be achieved within cellular immunotherapy? A team of researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science believes they have found the solution and have filed a patent. Professor Benny Geiger, one of the leading researchers, says: "We demonstrated the ability to significantly increase the number of cells and improve their quality. If proven effective in boosting immunotherapy, this could become a new therapeutic horizon for patients."
Scientists at the Weizmann Institute have developed a new approach to accelerate the division rate of immune cells in the lab while preserving their ability to kill cancer cells. They identified optimal time windows when these cells are particularly lethal, potentially advancing the next generation of innovative cancer treatments.
Cellular immunotherapy is a leading approach in cancer treatment that recruits the immune system's "soldiers"—T cells—to fight the tumor. In the process, T cells are taken from the patient, rapidly divided in the lab into a large army, and reinjected into the patient. Despite the promise of harnessing the immune system for battle, success rates remain limited. One reason is that after weeks of accelerated division, many of the T cells become exhausted and lose their ability to kill.
In Professor Benny Geiger's lab at the Weizmann Institute, a new approach has been developed that causes T cells to divide rapidly in the lab while maintaining, or even enhancing, their killing ability. The research began about ten years ago as a collaboration between two scientists at the Institute, Professor Benny Geiger and the late Professor Nir Friedman. Together with Dr. Shamrit Edotler-Lieber, they showed that when a synthetic growth environment coated with two carefully selected proteins from the natural immune system ("synthetic immune niche") is used, the T cells divide at a much higher rate, maintaining and even enhancing their killing ability. “When you need many soldiers to fight cancer, you need them to have ammunition. This is done by specific cells in the immune system—T cells that need to be present in sufficient numbers to deal with the growing cancer, which may become resistant to their killing ability,” explains Professor Geiger.
The synthetic niche they developed allows cells to divide under conditions where they maintain their killing ability optimally.
To move towards the clinical application of these findings, the researchers continued to explore the molecular mechanism responsible for the synthetic niche’s unique properties. In their most recent study, published in the scientific journal JITC, the researchers compared two activation methods for T cells, with and without the synthetic niche, identifying mechanisms that could significantly advance cellular immunotherapy. The synthetic immune niche has been patented and tested on mice. The team is now collaborating with researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, to explore the feasibility of using the method for human cancer treatment.