Japanese foundation funds project to increase effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy
Using glycoengineering to create more effective immunotherapy strategies against colorectal cancer is the main objective of the project led by researcher Salomé Pinho and was recently funded by the Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience. The project will involve scientists from the USA, Germany, and Switzerland in collaboration with the Gastroenterology service of the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário do Porto and IPO-Porto, and will focus on overcoming the main limitations of immunotherapy, especially in solid tumors, with the aim of ensuring that this treatment is used to successfully combat a greater number of malignant tumors.
Unlike chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which attack malignant cells and often also the surrounding healthy cells, immunotherapy is based on stimulating the cells of our immune system (T lymphocytes) with the aim of making them more effective in fighting tumor cells. Although immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment in recent years, there is a significant percentage of cancer patients who still do not respond to these treatments, especially when it comes to solid tumors. In colorectal cancer (CRC), the second most deadly cancer worldwide, explains Salomé Pinho, “only a minority of patients (4-5%) benefit from immunotherapy and, even then, not all patients respond”.
Faced with this urgent need to extend immunotherapy to a greater number of cancers, the team led by Salomé Pinho, who coordinates the i3S Research group “Immunology, Cancer & GlycoMedicine”, wants to investigate “how glycans (complex sugar structures) on the surface of T cells can act as a new regulatory mechanism that stimulates the activity of these immune system cells in the fight against cancer”.
By combining clinical samples from patients with colorectal cancer and in vitro and in vivo approaches, the researcher explains, “we intend to investigate the power of glycoengineering of T lymphocytes as a new strategy to enhance their effectiveness against cancer”. To this end, explains Salomé Pinho, “we will study how and why changes occur in the composition of T cell glycans throughout the development of colorectal cancer, from pre-malignant conditions to cancer, exploring how these changes in glycosylation block the action of T cells in the fight against the tumor”. In the long term, she emphasizes, the goal is to modulate these T cell glycans through glycoengineering strategies to increase the antitumor activity of these T lymphocytes and consequently the effectiveness of cellular immunotherapy, including treatment with CAR-T cells (defense cells genetically modified and reprogrammed in the laboratory to destroy tumors).
For researcher Salomé Pinho, this funding from the Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience is “a source of great pride, especially because of the recognition by our peers of the quality and transformative impact of the glycoscience that we have developed in our group at i3S”.
About the Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience
The Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience is a Japanese non-profit organization established in 1992 by Masakane Mizutani. It is dedicated to promoting excellent research studies aimed at decoding the role of glycans and glycobiology, anticipating the revelation of new mechanisms fundamental to the development of new medical and diagnostic tools, as well as new medical and healthcare technologies for the next generation.