CAR T THerapy (Time Magazine Article)

Thanks Gene for this interesting link. I am hopeful and believe that the "silver bullet" to kill the bandit is hidden in the genomics. This gene treatment introduced in the article is a novelty that together with other experiments involving genetics, now also under research in several labs, do in fact address the problem genuinely. They treat the cancer not the surrounding tissues or symptoms.

The principle of action is simple and has been in study for many years. I recall in 2001 when the first PCa vaccine-type was tested in animals. Researchers used the typical cold virus that attached to prostatic cells would trigger an attack by the immune system killing all prostatic cells in the body. The results were not so fantastic as the story behind it.
This gene therapy involving the tempering of certain genes in a specific cell (which will be recognized by the immune system as "bandits") has similar basics and works similarly to the therapies involving radiopharmaceuticals. They both require initially to identify the proteins that will serve as targets to aim the missiles. The LU177 (and the Ga68) uses the PSMA to locate the bandit and kill it with its radioactivity. Both attacks involve destroying the genetic material of such a cell.

We know that PCa has two possible origins; from hereditary or provoked (pollution, burst of radiation, chemo, etc). In both cases the genes are in play. I wonder if better ways of treatment will become a possibility in the future. Hereditary cases may be treated using the immune system to aim certain genetic material to modify it from the beginning, and those that suffer an accident may have its DNA repaired on the fly. One just needs to adapt their own immune system.

Best wishes,

VG