A patient’s own immune cells, multiplied into an army of billions of immune cells in a lab, can be used as a living medicine against metastatic melanoma, as the Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TIL) trial has shown.
- The TIL trial is the world’s first comparative phase 3 trial looking into the effect of T cell therapy in melanoma, and solid tumors in general.
- A melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer with a high rate of occurrence.
- In early clinical trials, cell therapy using the patient’s own T cells as a “living drug” showed promising results.
What are “Living” drugs or medicines?
- “Living” drugs or medicines consist of fully functional cells that have been selected and often modified to treat specific diseases, such as cancer.
- Drugs known as cell therapies fall into this category. Two types of cellular therapy that have recently become available are CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cells and therapeutic vaccines.
- In 2021, researchers at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and Pulmobiotics S.L had created the first ‘living medicine’ to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria growing on the surfaces of medical implants.
- The new treatment specifically targeted biofilms, colonies of bacterial cells that stick together on a surface.
- The surfaces of medical implants are ideal growing conditions for biofilms, where they form impenetrable structures that prevent antibiotics or the human immune system from destroying the bacteria embedded within.
- Biofilm-associated bacteria can be a thousand times more resistant to antibiotics than free-floating bacteria.
(Source: Sciencedaily)
