What are immune cells?

Immune cells refer to the cells involved in or related to immune response, including NK cells, T cells, B cells, macrophages, etc. Human immune cells are like guardians of health, whose immune defense function can resist the invasion of bacteria and viruses, immune surveillance function can timely remove lesions and cancerous cells, and immune stabilization function can remove aging and damaged cells.

Among these immune cells, Natural killer cells (NK cells) are the most important cells in the natural immune system and play a pivotal role. NK cells are recognized as the first line of defense against cancer by the medical community because they can directly kill tumor cells without prior stimulation of tumor antigens and induce cell apoptosis through the release of cytokines.

What is immune cell therapy?

Biological therapy of tumor can be divided into non-specific immunomodulator therapy, tumor vaccine therapy, immune checkpoint blocking therapy and immune cell therapy according to the principle of therapy.

Among them, immune cell therapy is considered to be the fourth major cancer treatment technique after surgery, radiotherapy (radiation therapy) and chemotherapy (chemical therapy). Its basic principle is to obtain the patient's own immune cells by isolation, under the induction of cytokines, a large number of amplified immune cells with high anti-tumor activity, and then injected back into the patient's body, in order to restore the strength of the patient's immune, attack the tumor treatment.

In the process of cancer evolution, cancer cells in the body need to evade the surveillance of the human immune system and divide repeatedly after escaping, which makes it difficult for immune cells to prevent the onset and development of cancer. Some cancer cells even inhibit the proliferation of immune cells and attack immune cells.

This is like the fact that the rebel cancer cells in the human body escaped after the initial search by the immune cells of the security forces, and the rebels' strength continued to increase. Eventually, the security forces could not stop the march of the rebels. In the course of the battle, the rebels kept attacking the city and invading the pool, and finally occupied the human body.

Immune cell therapy is like artificially arming immune cells, transforming ordinary soldiers into super soldiers like Captain America, and then injecting them into the battlefield inside the patient to change the pattern of war.

Advantages of immune cell therapy:

The discovery of DC and NK cells in the 1970s and further studies in recent years have proved the important role of immune cells in tumor therapy. According to the latest statistics, compared with patients with advanced lung cancer, gastric cancer and kidney cancer who only received surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the average survival time of patients receiving adjuvant immune cell therapy has been significantly prolonged, and the overall effective rate of treatment has also been significantly improved. Its specific advantages are as follows:

1. Make up for the shortcomings of traditional treatment

After a malignant tumor develops in the body, for many tumors, early surgical removal is the first choice. However, surgical treatment alone cannot remove tumor cells that remain in the blood and lymphatic system, so patients who have had surgery or lost the opportunity for surgery need chemical or radiation therapy. However, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are not comprehensive enough and should be supplemented by other treatments.

2. Reduce postoperative recurrence and metastasis

After surgery, immune cell therapy can significantly enhance the immune system function of tumor patients, which is conducive to the removal of residual cancer cells and micro-metastases, and reduce the incidence of local recurrence and distant metastasis.

3. Combination therapy improves prognosis

Immunocell therapy during the interval of tumor radiotherapy and chemotherapy has a synergistic anti-tumor effect, which helps to make patients more tolerant to the toxic and side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, enhance the ability to resist tumor, and improve the comprehensive treatment effect of malignant tumor.

4. It is highly targeted to a few tumors

Immune cell therapy is a potential alternative therapy for some special types of malignant tumors, such as kidney cancer and malignant melanoma, which are less sensitive to radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

5. Improve the quality of life

After activation and amplification in vitro, immune cells are injected back into the body to directly kill tumor cells or stimulate the anti-tumor immune response of the body, so as to control tumor recurrence and metastasis, and achieve multiple goals such as prolonging the survival period and improving the quality of life of patients.

6, safe, low or no side effects

Compared with traditional methods, biological therapy is more precisely targeted, only targeting the tumor cells themselves. Immune cell therapy uses the body's own immune cells instead of traditional chemicals to kill tumor cells, which is safer and has less toxic side effects.

What are NK cells?

NK cells are a core component of the innate immune system and are the strongest and most effective immune cells against cancer cells and viruses. They are found in the peripheral blood, liver, peritoneal cavity and placenta. NK cells are involved in our daily lives. It can inhibit the invasion of bacteria and viruses, remove cancerous and diseased cells, and has the effect of delaying the aging of the body.

Moreover, NK cells can kill almost all common cancer cell types, including lung cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, lymphatic cancer, esophageal cancer, etc. It also has killing effect on multi-drug resistant tumor cells.

The killing effect of NK cells on cancer cells is direct, sensitive and rapid. It does not need to "remember" any features of cancer cells in advance, or recognize specific protein molecules on the surface of cancer cells, and can work early in the tumor or when there are few cancer cells. Therefore, NK cells are recognized by the medical community as the first line of defense against cancer.

Why are NK cells in healthy people more active and lethal than those in cancer patients?

A normal person metabolizes tens of millions of cells every day, hundreds of which become cancerous. In healthy people, the immune function of NK cells is strong enough to clear out cancerous cells in time. However, for cancer patients, on the one hand, tumor growth prevents the differentiation and maturation of NK cells in the bone marrow. On the other hand, due to the invasion of cancer cells, the remaining NK cells in the body are extremely weak in fighting force, and the immune function is generally low, which can not effectively recognize and kill cancer cells.

As a result, healthy NK cells are more active and lethal than those in disease.

Medical circles have found that it takes 5 to 20 years for an individual to develop cancer from exposure to risk factors. During this period, NK cells and cancer cells in the body "lose each other", constantly "game" and confrontation occur. During this process, the activity, lethality, and number of NK cells are reduced by cancer. It can be said that human NK cells are a kind of non-renewable resources, which is very precious. In patients with advanced cancer, NK cells often have been severely damaged and cannot destroy tumor cells, resulting in cancer recurrence and metastasis.

With the continuous in-depth study on the function of sentinel NK immune cells, which guard the body's health, it provides an opportunity for the treatment of cancer, that is, to restore or rebuild the anti-tumor ability of NK cells through cell engineering, and improve the effect of NK cells on tumor immunotherapy. Or by expanding, activating and storing healthy NK cells in vitro, we can use healthy NK cells with strong damage to improve the cure rate of cancer and reduce the death rate of patients.