According to a story from the Washington Post, a new technique for delivering genes into immune system T cells could make immunotherapy a much more accessible option for treating rare cancers and other diseases. This technique, called electroporation, harnesses the new gene editing technology known as CRISPR. Immunotherapy is already an approved treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and clinical trials testing the treatment against melanoma and multiple myeloma are also displaying encouraging data so far.
About Immunotherapy
For treating cancer, immunotherapy involves altering the genes of T cells, a type of white blood cell that is responsible for destroying invasive pathogens in the body. Normally, T cells are not capable of detecting the abnormalities present in cancer cells, and do not attack them. However, by extracting T cells from the patient and altering their genetic makeup, they can be transformed into anti-cancer fighters.
However, delivery systems have been holding back immunotherapy from becoming more widespread. The conventional approach involves using disabled viruses, but only a few companies can actually produce them and it can also take a long time (up to a few years) before a new supply of disabled viruses is primed for use. They are also not very precise, delivering the genetic material in a random location within the genetic code of the T cell.
About Electroporation
Electroporation presents several advantages over the viral vector approach. The technique involves delivering an electric shock to the T cells, which allows genetic material to pass through their cell membranes. The genetic material can then be placed precisely using CRISPR, allowing for far more accurate placement compared to the sporadic delivery of genes with the viruses.
There have been several trials and experiments to test electroporation. For example, three children in a study have a rare autoimmune disorder that prevents T cells from working normally. Using electroporation, scientists were able to correct the mutation in the T cells that kept them from functioning and propagated millions of copies of the corrected cells, which were then returned to the children’s bodies. The procedure took only two weeks to complete and appeared to be effective; the normal treatment would have required a bone marrow transplant, which can be risky and expensive procedure.
In another study, scientists used electroporation to transform T cells so that they could detect and fight melanoma. More trials to test the approach on human patients are likely to appear in a soon as a year’s time.
