Advanced Medicine in Brief
Tackling solid tumors with macrophages, a stem cell cure for HIV, and travel bans… What’s new in advanced medicine?
- A proof-of-concept paper has shown that it is possible to genetically engineer macrophages to kill solid tumors in both mouse models and human samples. UPenn researchers were able to overcome the cells’ innate resistance to gene transfer with a chimeric adenoviral vector. In addition to expressing CAR, the process transformed the macrophages into highly inflammatory cells that could resist tumor co-option and stimulate the rest of the immune system (1).
- According to ISCT, the unproven cell therapy market is worth up to a staggering $2.4 billion and involves approximately 60,000 patients annually, paying up to $40,000 per treatment. The society has seen an increase in unproven therapies for COVID-19 and is taking a stand. “Most importantly, these ‘treatments’ produced with no evidence can be even more dangerous to the immediate health of patients and their communities,” said Laertis Ikonomou (2).
- A major concern for the cell and gene therapy industry is getting around the travel bans that are cropping up in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The good news: Novartis reportedly says it has found alternate methods to ship Kymriah following disruption to passenger flight services from Europe (3).
- Researchers have used stem cell transplantation in combination with chemotherapy to cure the second-ever patient of HIV. The first patient to be cured nine years ago in Berlin received total body irradiation and two rounds of stem cell transplant from a donor who carried the resistant CCR5Δ32/Δ32 gene, whereas the “London patient” only underwent one round of transplant, a less intensive cocktail of chemotherapy drugs, and no total body irradiation (4).
- Nature, “Human chimeric antigen receptor macrophages for cancer immunotherapy” (2020). Available at: https://go.nature.com/2wbTvV5
- ISCT, “ISCT Releases Statement on Unproven Stem Cell Treatments for COVID-19” (2020). Available at: https://bit.ly/2R5T71G
- Fierce Pharma, “Novartis sidesteps Europe travel ban to provide CAR-T drug Kymriah to patients” (2020). Available at: https://bit.ly/2wbpNiR
- The Lancet, “Evidence for HIV-1 cure after CCR5Δ32/Δ32 allogeneic haemopoietic stem-cell transplantation 30 months post analytical treatment interruption: a case report” (2020). Available at: https://bit.ly/2UZTAU3
Over the course of my Biomedical Sciences degree it dawned on me that my goal of becoming a scientist didn’t quite mesh with my lack of affinity for lab work. Thinking on my decision to pursue biology rather than English at age 15 – despite an aptitude for the latter – I realized that science writing was a way to combine what I loved with what I was good at.
From there I set out to gather as much freelancing experience as I could, spending 2 years developing scientific content for International Innovation, before completing an MSc in Science Communication. After gaining invaluable experience in supporting the communications efforts of CERN and IN-PART, I joined Texere – where I am focused on producing consistently engaging, cutting-edge and innovative content for our specialist audiences around the world.
