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The use of proteins on immune cells to manipulate the immune system so that it attacks cancer cells has led to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2018.
The prize money will be shared by James Allison from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and TasukuHonjo from Kyoto University in Japan.
Allison, in the 1990’s, then at University of California, studied checkpoint protein, CTLA-4, that acts as a brake on immune cells called T-cells. In 1997, he along with his colleagues constructed an antibody that could bind CTLA-4 and remove the brakes on T cells and release them to attack cancer cells in mice.
In 1992, Honjo, working independently of Allison, discovered a different T-cell protein PD-1 which by a different mechanism also acts as a brake on the immune system.
The work of the laureates has been described to constitute a paradigm shift and a landmark in the fight against cancer.
In recent past, clinical works on drugs that inhibit the CLTA-4 and PD-1 mechanisms known as ‘immune checkpoint therapy’ is gaining pace. Treatments that block PD-1 are effective in lung and renal cancers. However, recent clinical works show that combined therapies targeting CTLA-4 and PD-1 in patients with skin cancer are more effective than treating CTLA-4 alone. Scientists around the world are testing various other checkpoint proteins to see whether they could also act as targets,
Let’s hope this field develops further and cancer fighters throughout the world could benefit from the drugs.


Regards,
Prof. Moulipriya Sarkar
Faculty,
Department of Mathematics,
Heritage Institute of Technology,
Kolkata.

Image source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318438.php

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