AI Summary
Researchers at the University of Missouri have developed a molecule that shows promising results in preventing lung cancer caused by cigarettes. The molecule stimulates the immune system to attack cancer cells and has the potential to prevent lung cancer. This discovery is considered significant in the field of immunology.
As one of the most insidious diseases in the world, cancer has few treatments that work to eradicate it completely. Now, a new ground-breaking approach pioneered by two researchers working at the University of Missouri’s Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building shows promising results in preventing lung cancer caused by a carcinogen in cigarettes -; a discovery that immunologists Haval Shirwan and Esma Yolcu rank among the most significant of their careers.
In the new study, Shirwan and Yolcu designed a molecule -; known as an immune checkpoint stimulator (SA-4-1BBL) -; that can mobilize immune cells and guide them along the pathway that most efficiently attacks cancer cells. The molecule not only reduces the number of nodules on cancerous tumors, but it also has the potential to prevent lung cancer by triggering and mobilizing the immune system to recognize and target cells in the body that could potentially become cancerous.
This is huge. I have not been, over the entire course of my scientific career, as excited about a discovery as this one. When we started working with this molecule -; a long time ago now -; nobody thought the immune system had anything to do with cancer. Now, after years of immunotherapy advances, we know that’s key to combating it.”
Haval Shirwan, Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology in the MU School of Medicine
Solving for solutions
The immune system works with checks and balances, said Yolcu, also a professor