Harnessing the gene behind hair loss could help improve cancer immunotherapy.
A study by Columbia University Irving Medical Center researchers confirmed the possibility.
“While immunotherapies have shown great promise in cancer, most patients do not benefit from these treatments because their tumours are able to evade the immune system,” said a lead researcher, Angela M. Christiano.
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“But one way around this obstacle is to harness genes that cause the recruitment of T cells in autoimmune disease and use them to attract T cells to kill tumours. In this study, we showed that a gene that recruits T cells in alopecia areata- a condition in which immune cells attack and destroy hair cells–is turned off in various types of cancer, protecting them from the immune system. But if we turn that gene back on, we can make those cancers vulnerable to the immune response,” he added.
The study began with the recognition that auto-immune diseases and cancer represent opposite ends of the immune signalling spectrum.
When the immune system is overactive, a patient may be at risk for auto-immune disease; when it’s underactive, cancer can evade the immune system and progress.
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