Scientists discover another way to destroy cancer cells

Scientists discover another way to destroy cancer cells

Collateral damage caused by killer immune cells a new tool to fight cancer. 

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre scientists who were investigating how tumours evade the immune system have identified a potent and previously underappreciated way that cancer cells are destroyed, involving Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF).

The study, led by Dr Jane Oliaro and Professor Ricky Johnstone, highlights the importance of this inflammatory cytokine in destroying cancer cells that may avoid being killed directly by the immune system’s T cells.

The discovery opens a potential new pathway for developing drugs to harness the anti-cancer powers of TNF, particularly to boost the effectiveness of other block-buster immunotherapy drugs.

The results have been published online by the journal Science Immunology

"T cells can directly kill cancer cells when they recognise antigens on the cancer cell surface but they have another weapon in their arsenal, TNF, which may be very important in fighting cancer,” said Dr Oliaro, Head of Peter Mac’s Immune Defence Laboratory.

“Our study has revealed that the large amounts of TNF produced by T cells when they recognise a cancer cell causes widespread collateral damage to other cancer cells nearby,” said Dr Oliaro. “This means that TNF can kill rogue cells that either don’t have the antigen on their surface, or are hidden from T cells deep within a tumour - a phenomenon we have coined ‘bystander killing’.”

The scientists also captured dramatic time-lapse footage of this “bystander killing” occurring in a dish.

TNF is naturally produced as a result of T cells being activated in response to cancer cells, a virus or other foreign invader. However, the importance of TNF bystander killing in the immune system’s ability to fight cancer has largely been overlooked.

The Peter Mac researchers developed a new, whole-genome gene editing screening process using CRISPR methodology to identify key genes and molecular pathways that are important for cancers to evade the immune system.

This involved individually deleting all 20,000 genes in the genome in cancer cells and testing which ones, when missing, allow cancer cells to evade T cell killing.

Using a number of different cancer cells and approaches, genes involved in sensitivity to TNF were unanimously the top hits in the screens.

This new method, not previously performed on this scale in Australia, was developed by Dr Conor Kearney and Dr Stephin Vervoort who are postdoctoral fellows in the Oliaro and Johnstone labs respectively.

"This whole-genome CRISPR screening process has shown us when tumours evade the immune system, a major reason for this is acquired resistance to TNF killing,” said Professor Johnstone, Peter Mac’s Executive Director of Cancer Research and recipient of funding from The Kids’ Cancer Project.

"This study is a wonderful example of what can be achieved when innovative and collaborative research efforts combine the powerful technology of two disciplines, immunology and genetics, to answer a fundamental question in cancer research - how cancer cells adapt to evade our immune system,” he said.

"Our work identifies how cancers can acquire resistance to Immune mediated attack providing important new information that can be used to develop novel therapeutic strategies in oncology,” said Professor Johnstone.

"While our studies are initially focussed on adult cancers, the information that we are gathering could have impact in the paediatric oncology space.”

Work is already underway at Peter Mac on testing a drug that could sensitize tumour cells to TNF. This could provide the key to extending the ground-breaking results that the latest immunotherapy drugs are showing to other solid cancers, and ultimately improve the number of patients that respond to this exciting new therapy.

"We are excited about the potential impact of our work and are looking to test new therapeutic regimens in pre-clinical models based on our findings,” said Professor Johnstone.