Japanese researchers have succeeded in experimenting that can predict the dangerous side effects of cancer therapy before it happens.
According to RCO News Agency, Medical researchers at the University of Kyushu in Japan have been able to predict the side effects of cancer immunity before occurring by identifying a specific protein in the spinal cord collected before treatment that could affect the central nervous system after treatment.
Japanese researchers say cancer therapy can be safer. The findings of this study allow physicians to identify high -risk patients and prevent these dangerous conditions for patients by prescribing early treatment.
Cancer immune therapy (the use of the patient’s immune system to fight cancer) has become a promising way to combat the disease in the past decades. One type of immune therapy called “Car-T” using genetic engineering to re-program immune cells (T Cells) to target and destroy cancer cells.
This method has been successful in the treatment of leukemia, but has also been associated with a high risk, including “neural toxicity associated with immune cells” (ICANS). This syndrome causes swelling in the central nervous system.
Dr. Yuya Kunisaki, a professor of clinical and medical chemistry at the University of Kioshu, said: “ICANS can be associated with mild symptoms such as headaches and numbness, but in more severe cases in patients with consciousness, seizures or bloodshed in the brain.
He added that the occurrence of ICANS after Car-T treatment is highly high. There are about 64 % likely to develop, but so far there has been no reliable way to prevent the severity of the disease.
In this experiment, the researchers analyzed the proteins in the residual spinal fluid taken from 29 patients with “B-Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma). In that group, 11 patients had ICANs and 18 did not.
Researchers identified 864 proteins present in spinal fluid samples. They reduced the list of proteins with a sharp difference between patients and those who have not been infected to 46 proteins. This made them potential biological markers to predict the conditions.
Finally, the researchers were able to discover the C1RL protein in advanced ICANS and Fuca2 protein in the milder stages of ICANS, which had a great role in predicting.
Looking at both proteins, the predictor testing of their proportion in distinguishing patients with high risk of ICANS and low -risk patients with high precision.
The researchers then tested the biomarkers of C1RL and Fuca2 proteins in the second group, along with 10 CAR-T patients. They found that the protein ratio correctly identifies the risk of ICANS.
However, the researchers warned that despite the high accuracy of the study of these proteins, due to the limited samples of this study, their findings were still in the preliminary phase.
Dr. Tomoko Nomiyama, a clinical technician in the clinical and medical chemistry department at the University of Kiosho University and authors of the study, said: “We need more patients to test our research.”
The research team hopes that the research, in addition to helping physicians diagnose ICANS earlier and faster treatment, will allow physicians to reduce the risk of ICANs before the CAR-T treatment key and prescribe preventive drugs. For example, the C1RL protein, which rises in patients with ICANS, relates to the supplement system (part of the immune system that causes swelling and helps ICANS).
“If the biological marker ratio shows the high risk of ICANs, we can begin preventive treatment with the drug that inhibits the supplement system and reduce the risk of developing,” Konisaki added. These tests can pave the way for a more secure and more personal approach to treating cancer.
The research team also seeks to measure the accuracy of these biomarkers in patients with different types of leukemia and beyond the “non -cell cell -cell lymphoma”. They also intend to expand their research and hopes to discover the key to biomarkers in collected liquids such as blood serum.
“The process of collecting spinal cord fluid is a painful and aggressive process, so most Japanese hospitals and other countries do not do so before Car-T treatment,” Nomiama said. If we can identify similar biological markers in the blood, our tests will become a simpler and more accessible tool for ICANS.
This study is published in the journal Leukemia.
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(tagstotranslate) Cancer Treatment (T) immune therapy
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