The June 14, 2014 Science News featured a cover article of "T Cell Attack" which was about how engineering patients' immune cells are being used to battle cancer. They explained that a man had leukemia, chemo wasn't working anymore, and he was depleting. The researchers chose a particular immune cell from his blood and inserted a virus into the cell, which provided new genes that tells the cells (t cells) to attack leukemia cells. They took the altered T cells and through an IV, allowed his immune system to become a "cancer-seeking " weapon. A month later, he was cancer free.
It was buried a bit in the article but it also discussed autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis or type 1 diabetes as the possibility of being cured using this method. So, what about those of us who have an interstitial lung disease? Apparently, Dr. Bluestone at UCSF is working in his lab to see if this T cell therapy could also be used in organ transplants.
"His lab is developing ways to use specific Tregs in transplant setting so that the cells recognize the transplanted organ and 'educate' the immune system to see the organ as part of its own tissue. Such treatment may eventually eliminate the need for ongoing treatment with immunosuppressive drugs.
Current drugs used to suppress the immune system may work for years, but many transplanted organs are ultimately rejected by the patient's body."
There is so much more information about using this method post organ transplants instead of the cocktail of drugs currently used. For the complete article, the site to buy Science News is here It can also be found on magazine racks of your local bookstores.
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