Developing a Novel Cell-Based Therapy for Cancers: Synthetic Biology Approach to Turn Cells Phagocytic against Breast Cancer Cells
Abstract
Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide, and many forms of cancers currently lack effective therapies. Breast cancer is no exception; it causes over 40,000 deaths every year in the United States (equating to 1% of total deaths), while 200,000 cases are newly diagnosed. The vast majority of the deaths are due to tumor metastasis to vital organs such as lung. With invasive breast tumors with metastasis, the 5-year survival rate is as low as 22%. The poor prognosis is primarily due to a lack of effective therapies. Substantial evidence suggests that containing cancer cells within the breasts leads to excellent prognosis, but trials targeting primary tumors as well as metastatic tumors at this late stage have thus far been ineffective. We hypothesize that a reason for this failure relates to the sheer amount of cancer cells needed to be killed without any side effects associated with therapeutic procedures. Our multidisciplinary team of biologists, clinical oncologists, and engineers at Johns Hopkins University as well as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center proposes to develop a conceptually novel cell-based therapy for breast cancers. We have recently developed a cell engineering technique that endows cells with cell-eating capacity against specific targets. The ultimate goal of our approach, termed SynC for Synthetic Clearance of breast cancers, is to take a patient s own cells and engineer them to become capable of eating other cells, specifically targeted against distinctive proteins that are often highly expressed on the surface of breast cancer cells. Because cells ceaselessly turn over the engineered receptors and also persist for some time, we will generate a living drug that acts as a sustainable, high capacity sink for breast cancer cells. We will perform the proof-of-principle groundwork required to translate this concept to a therapy. Importantly, our SynC technology has the potential to be applicable for other cancers, both solitary and solid tumors. In the long run, the technology developed from the present study will provide a novel therapeutic foundation for great improvement of both quality and duration of patients lives.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 29, 2016
- Source ID
- W81XWH1510309
Entities
People
- Takanari Inoue
Organizations
- Johns Hopkins University
- United States Army