Harsh cancer treatments and Immune oncology

Immune oncology also known as immunotherapy is the study of treatment of cancer by using immune system of body to fight against it. It is a type of therapy designed to encourage the body’s natural defense to altercate cancer. Substances which are either produced by body or in laboratory are used to boost, or regain body’s immunity. It is not exactly understood how this therapy works, it may work by accelerating immune system’s effectiveness at removing cancer cells, it may halt them from reaching other body parts, or it reduces the speed of growth of cancer cells.

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This type of treatment seems too good to be true, but is logical and based on simple concept, whereas, treatment like chemotherapy which is widely used to kill this disease but it can only work by hurting the body. To understand immunotherapy better lets discuss monoclonal antibodies which is a type of this therapy.

Monoclonal antibodies

Body’s immune system produces antibodies to fight against antigens which are foreign harmful substances. But cancer develops, because body’s immune system cannot identify the cancer cells as foreign element and does not destroy it. Monoclonal antibodies which are artificial antibodies are given to patients and act like antibodies naturally produced by immune system of patients body. These artificial antibodies given intravenously work by attaching themselves to cancer cells and target specific proteins which support the increase of cancer cells.

Getting attached to these cells they are supposed to accomplish some tasks. As the immune system is unable to detect harmful cancer cells usually and monoclonal antibodies tag them to specific parts of cancer cells which are not present in the healthy cells of a body and help defense system to destroy them.

Cancer cells grow faster than normal cells because they can make copies of the chemical found in the body called growth factor receptors and multiply themselves by sending signals to other cells. But monoclonal antibodies prevent these receptors to multiply the cells and not send more signals.

Also when radioactive molecules are attached to monoclonal antibodies, they directly deliver radiation to cancer cells and hence very low dose of radiation is used and helps healthy cells to remain unaffected which is another benefit of this treatment over chemotherapy which uses very large amount of radiation to kill cancer and kills several healthy cells also.

Although this therapy is new and still has to be worked upon various factors to be recognized and used worldwide, but it is becoming hope for cancer patients which have to undergo painful cancer treatments.

Frequently Asked Questions about Cellular Barriers in the Innate Immune System for Better Understanding Immunotherapy

If you’re trying to understand the functions of immune oncology cells that constantly come up as you study the different types of treatments of immunotherapy, then this Q&A blogpost will serve you well in understanding the basics when it comes to that specifically knowing what are white blood cells, their types & the function of the most basic form of defense of them.

So what is the innate immune system again?

Its part of the layered immune system, and it’s the first line of defense against all forms of pathogens & foreign bodies, and its defenses are mainly non-specific as opposed to the adaptive immune system which is the more advanced component of the immune system.

 

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And what exactly these cellular barriers?

These are the types of cells within the innate immune system that are responsible for the defensive immune response against the pathogens to be able to eradicate them completely and end the form of threat coming up.

And what are these cells?

Mainly it’s the leukocytes or white blood cells which are considered to be the second hand of the innate immune system and it has many types.

What are the types of the white blood cells?

Phagocytes (dendritic cells, neutrophils & macrophages),eosinophils,basophils, mast cells & NK cells.

And what is the main ways these cells attack the pathogens?

They’re mainly generic and are activated through what is called pathogen recognition receptors present of their cell’s surface and the ways through which they attack are 2 ways:

1-Attacking larger pathogens through contact.

2-Through the engulfment & killing of them.

And what are phagocytes?

These are immune cells belonging to the leukocytes that protect the body through ingesting harmful particles or pathogens.

And what is phagocytosis?

This is the function of phagocytes which is engulfment, and it’s considered to be the most basic form of defense in invertebrates & vertebrates alike.

And how does phagocytosis happens?

Mainly these phagocytes go about patrolling the body looking for pathogens to present themselves though they can also be called to certain locations through cytokines.

And when a pathogen is engulfed by a phagocyte it turns into a phagosome through becoming trapped in an intracellular vesicle and then turns into a phagolysosome through the fusion with another vesicle called lysosome.

The pathogen is eliminated through the digestive activity of enzymes or through the following of a respiratory bursting that leads to the release of free radicals into the phagolysosome.

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Frequently Asked Questions on Cancer Immunotherapy for the Complete Beginner.

If you’re beginning to study or learn about cancer immunotherapy, you might have a lot of basic questions that need answering, related to the reason why it was developed in the first place despite the presence of several mainstream treatments, and its basis, and why it is useful in the treatment of cancer. And thus in this brief Q&A guide we’ll cover all the questions related to this form of treatment to reach clarity.

So what are mainstream treatments of cancer?

Mainly, they are surgery, chemotherapy (evolved from using mustard gas), and radiation therapy.

And how do the work basically?

Surgery cuts off cells from the body, chemotherapy poisons the cells to their death, and radiation therapy burns them.

And what is wrong with these treatments?

When you’re looking for a way to end a disease, you want to work only on the disease, not on the healthy cells, and these treatments could be extremely lethal and even lead to death in many cases or disfigurement with a lot of unfavorable side effects.

Could any of these treatments be used alone to treat cancer?

Not really, usually the oncologists do the best they can by combining the treatments together to produce the best curative effect possible with the least side-effects using these the combination of all these mechanisms together.

And how did immunotherapy evolve from these techniques?

Scientists were trying to look for a magic bullet, a one stop solution for all cancer without the damage of chemotherapy, they wanted a way to target only cancer cells and kill them and at the same time prevent the healthy cells from being damaged at all, and it’s well-known that the immune system does that naturally.

And is that type of treatment is the ultimate solution for cancer?

Unfortunately, it’s not a first-line type of therapy yet, and it has many limitations, but it certainly has a strong enhancing effect when used in combination with other types of treatments.

If we’re using the immune system, why is it in the first place it can’t attack cancer on its own?

For several reasons , first of all the cancer cells weren’t cancerous in the first place , they were healthy body cells , now that they’ve turned cancerous , the body still identifies them as a part of the body and thus these cells produce the same proteins that put the immune system in check .

Another reason is that even if they do detect some of the cells, the responses aren’t strong enough to completely annihilate them.  

And thus this wraps our brief Q&A about cancer immunotherapy and how it evolved from mainstream treatments and why it’s important for the body.

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Frequently Asked Questions about the Main Functions of Antibodies & How the Work in the Prenatal Stages in the Science of Immunotherapy.

If you want to understand the basic functions of antibodies and how they work and thus used a lot in the field of antibody immunotherapy, then you’ll want to read this Q&A blogpost about its functions and how it works in the prenatal and neonatal stages of human life.

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So what is antibody immune-oncology again?

If you can’t find a way to differentiate the host’s cells from the pathogen or foreign body, then you won’t be able to eradicate it, that’s the way the antibodies work, they detect antigen proteins that aren’t natural within the body and either bind to it and attack these cells or inform the immunity to act on its part.

And how do these antibodies function precisely?

Mainly antibodies can be useful in either secreted soluble form where it’s active in finding antigens or in the form of membranes where it transforms to memory cells that can help the immune system in finding a pathogen antigen that it has detected before, more like the different between new detectives and experienced detectives.

And from where are these antibodies produced?

When the B cells are activated they differentiate into plasma cells, then these plasma cells secrete these antibodies or they differentiate into memory cells that we’ve mentioned, that make the immune response to pathogens fast.

Could you tell you more about how a baby is protected from pathogens when he’s still inside his mother and the antibodies role in that?

Mainly this happens through a phenomenon that is called passive immunization that is provided from the mother and is transferred to the fetus in the form of antibodies in its bloodstream and thus based on that they’re considered a part of the humoral immune system.

While when it comes to the endogenous production of antibodies within the fetus, it varies depending on the different types of antibodies.

And what produces these circulating antibodies?

The production of these antibodies is resulted from clonal B cells that specifically respond to a single type of antigen for example a virus capsid protein fragment.

And can you state how these antibodies contribute to the immunity of the host?

Sure it can contribute in three ways: preventing the entrance of pathogens and their damaging effects, stimulation of immune cells that remove or eat the pathogens and lead to the triggering of pathogenic cells destruction through the immunity.

And thus this wraps up our quick Q&A session on antibody functions and its connection to immunotherapy.

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