A protein that feeds cancer can be turned into cancer's opponent

Semir Beyaz's team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York noticed something odd about a protein called PPARD. Cancer cells use it to burn fat and grow — but when the researchers switched the same protein on inside immune cells, those cells became fitter fat-burners too, and far better at attacking tumours. In laboratory tests, PPARD-activated CAR T cells — engineered immune cells already used against some cancers — slowed or stopped human colorectal cancer growing in dishes, in miniature tumours grown from patient tissue, and in mice. The effect also appeared in breast and ovarian cancers and melanoma, and the study is published in Nature Immunology. Nothing has been tested in patients yet, but it reframes a villain as a possible ally, precisely where treatment options are thinnest.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation