Experimental cancer treatment could make body’s immune cells more powerful

Scientists may have found a way to help the body’s immune cells fight cancer longer, which could make some treatments more effective.

Researchers at UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that temporarily boosting a protein called p53 helped specially primed immune cells stay stronger and kill more melanoma cells in laboratory experiments.

The study, published in Frontiers in Immunology, focused on T cells, which are immune cells that help the body fight disease.

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Some cancer treatments take a patient’s T cells, modify them in the laboratory so they can recognize cancer, and then send them back into the body to attack tumors.

One challenge is that these cells can eventually become “exhausted,” making them less effective in fighting cancer, the UCLA researchers said.

UCLA scientists have discovered that temporarily boosting a protein called p53 could help immune cells fight cancer more effectively in laboratory experiments. (iStock)

To address this problem, researchers treated human T cells with an experimental drug called navtemadlin, which temporarily increases the activity of p53, a protein known to help prevent cancer.

The treated T cells showed fewer signs of exhaustion, had more energy and developed characteristics that could help them last longer. When tested in the lab against melanoma cells, they were also much more effective at killing cancer cells than untreated T cells, the research found.

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Kien Vuu, a triple board-certified physician based in Los Angeles and former clinical assistant professor at UCLA, confirmed that T-cell exhaustion is one of the biggest challenges with these treatments.

“After repeated encounters with cancer, they become ‘exhausted’ and lose their ability to multiply and attack,” Vuu, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital.

Scientists tested an experimental drug called navtemadlin to see if it could help T cells resist exhaustion. (iStock)

Vuu said this approach could offer a relatively simple way to boost existing treatments.

“The practical appeal is in the simplicity,” he said. “Rather than adding another genetic modification, this approach adds a drug during the manufacturing stage, when a patient’s T cells are prepared in the laboratory.”

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If this approach works in further research, Vuu said it could potentially help T cells remain effective longer, particularly in treating solid tumors.

However, the results are still preliminary.

The results remain preliminary, with researchers emphasizing that the experiments involved human cells in the laboratory rather than patients. (iStock)

“This is preliminary research, at the laboratory stage,” Vuu acknowledged. “The experiments were done with human cells in a dish against melanoma cells, not with animals or humans.”

Researchers will need to test this approach in animals and other types of cancer before moving into clinical trials, according to Vuu.

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The amount of medication will also need to be carefully considered. The UCLA researchers found that higher doses caused more T cells to die, while lower doses produced the desired effects without significantly reducing the number of healthy cells.

“Dosage is especially important,” Vuu said. “Researchers found that activating too much p53 actually killed more T cells, so getting the balance right will be key.”

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“Patients shouldn’t expect this in the clinic anytime soon, but it’s a promising new direction worth pursuing.”

Fox News Digital has contacted the researchers for comment.