RE: Part Three5 Feb 2019 15:53
Inan,
So you are saying the bright side is so bright it can overcome the dark side?
I notice you are picking the bits out of the article I linked. Are any of your deductions mentioned in any of the Scancell releases or updates?
Within immunogenic or inflammatory tumor microenvironments, a chronic presence of IFN-? fails to contribute to tumor cell eradication by its “bright side” function, and instead, can induce a selection and/or generation of tumor clones with more malignant phenotype by its “dark side” function. Genetic screening of tumor cells recently revealed a pivotal role of tumor IFN-? response for sensitivity to immunotherapies [77,78]. Besides, this pathway will also lead to an acquired resistance character against immunotherapies. Therefore, we have not averted our eyes from the “dark side” and confront this crafty trap. Several studies propose IFN-? blockade as an approach for disruption of immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments or for suppression of IFN-?-induced epigenomic and transcriptomic changes in tumor cells that provide a molecular basis for their immune escape [64,88]. Nevertheless, this approach may require further optimization as premature IFN-? blocking might interfere to generate an effective anti-tumor response.
Extensive future work will be needed to understand such complex roles of IFN-? in tumor microenvironments and the full context of either pro- or anti-tumor features of IFN-?. By enhancing its beneficial anti-tumor effects along with limiting pro-tumor actions, IFN-? could contribute in establishing promising immunotherapy of cancer, and further reduce risks of tumors acquiring resistance to anti-tumor immunity and/or developing a progressive character.
Like I said earlier, we are lucky we have Prof Durrant to address these potential issues.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
