In early October, the Swedish Nobel Prize Committee presented the Physiology or Medicine Award to James Ellison of the United States and Benjamin of Japan in recognition of its contribution to the discovery of therapies for the treatment of cancer by negative immunomodulation.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, cancer has become an important disease threatening human health, and millions of people die every year from cancer. The two scientists who won this year created a new concept for cancer treatment, “attacking tumor cells by stimulating the intrinsic capabilities of our immune system,†the jury said. “Their findings are a milestone in the battle between humans and cancer.†.
CTLA-4 antibody: activates immune cells by "brake"
James Ellison is an American immunologist, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. After Ellison isolated the T cell antigen complex egg, it was found that if the activity of CTLA-4, the immune system "molecular brake", can be temporarily inhibited on the surface of T cells, the activation of T cell development can be achieved, and the human immune system can be released. The ability to destroy tumor cells.
In the experiment, Ellison and his team found that after injection of CTLA-4-functional antibodies, the tumors in mice rapidly shrink, and the treated mice can also exert immunity against newly implanted tumor cells. The researchers then found that drugs made according to Allison's research can significantly prolong the lives of melanoma patients with long-lasting effects.
PD-1 antibody: prevents immune cells from "abandoning resistance"
Ben Youyou is a Japanese immunologist. His main contribution is to establish a basic conceptual framework for immunoglobulin type conversion, and propose a model that explains the changes in antibody gene transformation in mode.
PD-1 is a cell discovered by Ben Youyou in 1992 and belongs to a molecule on immune cells in human blood. Later, it was confirmed by mouse experiments that "blocking" PD-1 would relieve the immune cells from binding and make them fully resistant to cancer cells. After a series of clinical tests, related drugs were made and put into the treatment of skin cancer and lung cancer.
"Immunotherapy" awards
There are PD-1 proteins on the surface of human immune T cells, and PD-L1 protein is distributed on the surface of cancer cells. When the two are combined, they will send out signals to prevent immune cells from attacking cancer cells. Yu You's research is to directly control PD-1, so that it can not bind to PD-L1, so that immune cells attack cancer cells; and Ellison is studying a membrane protein, which is immune to T cells. The function has an inhibitory effect. The antibody that produces this membrane protein can effectively prevent the inhibition of CTLA-4 on the immune system. The two studies go the same way, using the body's own immune function to fight cancer cells.
Immune checkpoint therapy is so effective because it is fundamentally different from traditional chemical small molecule therapy. Small molecule drugs directly kill cancer cells, and often kill some healthy cells, so the side effects are obvious. Antibody drugs do not directly kill cancer cells, but block the inhibition of cancer cells on the immune system, so that the body's immune system can kill cancer cells by itself.
Therefore, this treatment does not affect normal cells, and there are fewer side effects. More importantly, regardless of the specific mutation of the cancer cells, it can continue to kill cancer cells in most cases, so it has a better broad spectrum and a higher cure rate. Of course, this broad-spectrum is not unlimited, but also depends on the specific conditions of the patient's cancer cells. In addition, as an antibody drug, the cost of production, storage, transportation and other aspects are relatively high, and the corresponding drug price is relatively expensive.
This year, the two scientists won the award because the corresponding antibody drug of PD-1 has been on the market in the past two years, and has achieved quite good clinical results, which brings new hope for human beings to completely overcome cancer.
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