SKKU Research Stories - SAINT prof. Yong Taek Lim
- 성균융합원
- Hit2601
- 2018-04-12
Development of a bio-implantable DISC material capable of overcoming the immunosuppression mechanism in cancer tissues and inducing dendritic cell and T cell activation and anticancer effect.
immuneCare-DISC-based tumor microenvironmental control and immune cell activation technology.
Since the anti-cancer immunotherapy technology utilizes the immune cells present in the body for cancer cell death, it is attracting attention as a next-generation anticancer therapy technique in which side effects and toxicity are minimized, and many medicines have already been used in clinical use. However, the actual number of patients responding to such immunotherapy in clinical trials is very low (20-30%), because the various immunosuppressive factors present in the tumor microenvironment cause activation of therapeutic immune cells Which is known to be inhibited. In addition, these immunosuppressive factors are associated with a mechanism that induces cancer recurrence or metastasis to other tissues by cancer cells that have not been completely removed through cancer surgery. A representative cell that provides such an immunosuppressive environment is myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC).
In particular, gemcitabine drugs are widely used in clinical practice. However, low stability of the drug structure after in vivo administration and toxicity due to excessive / repeated administration have been a major problem. The development of the iCD platform has solved the stability and toxicity problems . Gemcitabine, which is slowly released in the body through a single localized transplant, can effectively control the MDSC that inhibits the activity of the T cell activated by the anti-cancer vaccine, thus ultimately enhancing the chemotherapeutic efficacy (Fig. 1). In this study, a small animal model was used in which 90% of the tumors were removed and the tumor recurrence and metastasis induced by the remaining tumor were observed.
The results of this study were published online on March 23, 2018 in the world-renowned journal 'Advanced Materials' (I.F. = 19.8).
* Title: Implantable Synthetic Immune Niche for Spatiotemporal Modulation of Tumor-derived Immunosuppression and Systemic Antitumor Immunity: Postoperative Immunotherapy
* Participating researchers: Yong Taek Lim (Professor, Sungkyunkwan Univ.), Hathaichanok Phuengkham (Co-author # 1, Sungkyunkwan University), Song Chan-Young (co-author #1, Sungkyunkwan University), Sung Ho Um(Co-author, Sungkyunkwan University)