Virotherapy Aided by NKCs Can Drive Highly Effective Cancer Therapy
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and The Ohio State University, have now combined the strengths of Natural Killer Cells with those of Virotherapy to develop the most effective way to treat cancer.
“The findings of this research are very exciting because it helps unravel the complex yin and yang relationship between the natural cancer-fighting power intrinsic to our immune system and externally added cancer-killing cells that are given as a therapy. It’s very significant because it shows, contrary to recent scientific claims, that virotherapy can be combined with cell therapy for a positive effect,” said the study’s corresponding author Balveen Kaur, Ph.D., professor and vice chair of research in the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.
NK cells have been known to demonstrate rapid and potent immunity to metastatic and hematological cancers in addition to overcoming immunosuppressive effects of tumor microenvironment.
In this study, the team devised a mathematical formula unlocking the complex interactive relationship between the externally introduced viruses constituting a Virotherapy treatment and NK cells in addition to the immune system’s existing NK cells to calculate this
mix’s cancer cell-killing potency.This mathematical model indicated that when the number of externally introduced NK cells is increased, the cancer-fighting ability was witnessed to strengthen. While a cancer patient’s own NKCs although present in smaller numbers, concentrate on clearing the virus and therefore have an adverse effect by limiting the virus’s anticancer capability- this impact can be reversed to destroy more of the tumor by introducing greater numbers of external NK cells.
This theory was subsequently confirmed in practice by experiments on mice with brain tumors, paving the way for further work.
“Natural NK cells sense and kill infected cancer cells, thus clearing viruses. But by adding exogenous NK cells in sufficient quantities, they can also destroy the residual tumor. Our tests showed when you get this ratio right, there’s a significant improvement in cancer-fighting efficacy,” said Kaur, who is a member of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. “So it’s a big step forward, which should create more opportunities for further research and development of clinical trials for the treatment of cancer in humans and animals.”
