Natural hormone ‘turbo charges’ the immune system to fight off cancer by blocking a protein that causes tumours to take hold
- Natural Killer (NK) cells prevent both the growth and spread of tumours
- Protein activin-A blocks NK cells, which is a key way cancer takes hold
- Hormone follistatin inhibited activin-A in cells in the laboratory
Scientists have discovered how to ‘turbo charge’ the immune system to help in the fight against cancer.
Natural killer (NK) cells, the ‘soldiers’ of immunity, prevent both the growth and spread of tumours.
Australian researchers discovered the protein activin-A blocks NK cells, which is thought to be one of the key ways cancer takes hold.
Using the naturally-occurring hormone follistatin, the team inhibited activin-A in human and mouse NK cells in the laboratory.
The researchers believe their study ‘opens the door’ to new drugs that provide a ‘deeper and more durable way to overcome the immune suppression seen in cancer’.
Scientists have discovered how to ‘turbo charge’ the immune system to fight cancer (stock)
The study was carried out by the University of Queensland and Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute.
Study author Professor Nicholas Huntington, of Monash, said: ‘These findings may open the door to novel immune-therapy drugs.
‘[These] provide a deeper and more durable way to overcome the immune suppression seen in cancer, improving patient outcome.’
One in two people born after 1960 in the UK will develop cancer at some point in their lives, Cancer Research UK statistics show.
And in the US, around 1.7 million new cases were diagnosed last year alone, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Chemo is often a go-to treatment, however, it can fail if surviving cells mutate to become resistant to its mechanism.
NK cells have been shown to protect against the development and spread of cancer, the researchers wrote. Malignant tumours have also been linked to NK cell suppression, they added.
However, the signals that inhibit NK cell activity were largely a mystery.
Writing in the journal Science Signaling, the Australian scientists discovered activin-A blocks the division of NK cells in the laboratory.
The protein, which is found in healthy and malignant human cells, reduces the production of the enzyme granzyme b. This is released by NK cells to trigger tumour ‘suicide’.
Follistatin then inhibited activin-A’s action in both human and mouse NK cells in the laboratory. The hormone also slowed melanoma growth in the rodents.
Previous studies have linked activin-A to ‘malignant cellular reprogramming’ in breast and ovarian cancer.
High circulating amounts of the protein have also been associated with tumour progression and poor prognosis in lung cancer.
Follistatin, which is involved in muscle mass and strength, has been shown to inhibit the ‘biological activity’ of activin-A.
