突破！机体天然免疫力或可有效抑制癌症发展
癌症免疫疗法作为癌症治疗领域的前沿性疗法，其往往通过增强患者自身的免疫系统功能来抵御癌细胞从而发挥抗癌作用，截止到今日，该研究领域的科学家们重点关注开发新型的癌症疫苗以及工程改造淋巴细胞来结合癌细胞产生的特殊蛋白。
近日，一篇刊登于国际杂志Immunity上的研究论文中，来自麦基尔医学院的科学家们通过研究发现，机体的先天免疫系统可以帮助检测癌症的存在并且限制癌症发展。
研究者Saleh教授表示，目前为止我们的研究重点主要集中于寻找特殊的方法来刺激适应性或特殊性的免疫力来排斥肿瘤，相比病人机体或针对癌症的特殊性高效免疫力而言，我们发现，机体中先天性免疫力可以帮助调查机体危险信号的存在，比如癌症环境产生的信号等，以此来帮助我们开发可以抑制癌症发展的免疫疗法。
利用缺失先天性免疫系统的小鼠进行研究，研究者们发现，相比拥有完整免疫系统的小鼠而言，结直肠癌向肝脏的扩散在先天性免疫系统缺失的小鼠中表现地更加具有侵袭性，而这就表明先天性的免疫力可以有效控制癌症的扩散，而进一步研究者研究鉴别出了感应器Nlrp3和其效应细胞因子IL-18，其可以帮助激活自然杀伤细胞来攻击癌症。
这项研究中，研究者鉴别出了先天性免疫系统感受器的特性，以及特殊因子调节肿瘤杀伤的机制，这或许为后期开发新型癌症免疫疗法提供新的思路，同时也可以帮助研究者们寻找更多可以杀灭肿瘤细胞的潜在策略。
doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2015.08.013
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The Nlrp3 Inflammasome Suppresses Colorectal Cancer metastatic Growth in the Liver by Promoting Natural Killer Cell Tumoricidal Activity
Jeremy Dupaul-Chicoine,Azadeh Arabzadeh，Maryse Dagenais,Todd Douglas,Claudia Champagne,Alexandre Morizot,Ian Gaël Rodrigue-Gervais,Valérie Breton,Sara L. Colpitts,Nicole Beauchemin,Maya Saleh
Cancer immunotherapy, a relatively new frontier in cancer treatment, works by enhancing the capacity of one's immune system to attack cancer cells. To date, this field has focused on developing cancer vaccines or engineering specialized cells called lymphocytes capable of binding specific proteins produced by cancer cells but not by normal cells. Now, a new study published in the journal Immunity and led by Dr. Maya Saleh, who is a William Dawson Scholar and Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill's Faculty of Medicine , demonstrates that our body's innate immune system can detect the presence of cancer spread and limit its growth. "Until now, the focus has been on finding ways to stimulate adaptive, or specific, immunity to reject tumors," says Saleh, who is also Director, Inflammation and Cancer Program at McGill. "In contrast to this highly specialized form of immunity that is potentially patient- and cancer- specific, our findings show that innate immunity that broadly surveys tissues for the presence of 'danger' signals such as those produced in the cancer environment can also be harnessed for a more general cancer