Israeli Scientists Discover New Method of Fighting Cancer
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Advancing the fight against cancer, scientists at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have developed a new way to revive natural killer (NK) cells that identify and destroy cancerous and viral cells, World Israel News (WIN) reports.
The study was led by Prof. Mira Barda-Saad at Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, and has been published in the EMBO Journal.
The Bar Ilan team discovered that the lymphocytes, either T cells or NK cells can wear themselves out from attacking tumors. The scientists then developed a method of restoring these vital cells through the use of nanoparticles.
“These nanoparticles, capable of targeting and silencing negative regulators, restore NK cell activity directly within the patient’s body, bypassing the need for cell extraction and genetic modification,” WIN explained in its report.
“Experiments in three-dimensional tissue culture and in-vivo mice models have shown that nanoparticles, acting as a platform for drug delivery, can reprogram the dysfunctional natural killer cell population,” WIN said.
The nanoparticles were found to have suppressed the two negative regulators allowing the natural killer cells to resume the destruction of cancerous cells, WIN reports.
The Bar Ilan team is hopeful that their novel method may lead to the development of highly effective treatments against solid tumors, WIN noted.
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