Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy represents a significant breakthrough in cancer treatment, offering a new approach to enhance the immune system's ability to fight cancer. The therapy involves engineering T cells with synthetic receptors called CARs to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Despite significant advancements in the field, most production of these T cells can be done through viral vectors, which comes with high costs, safety concerns, and production challenges.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy represents a significant breakthrough in cancer treatment, offering a new approach to enhance the immune system's ability to fight cancer. The therapy involves engineering T cells with synthetic receptors called CARs to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Despite significant advancements in the field, most production of these T cells can be done through viral vectors, which comes with high costs, safety concerns, and production challenges.
Medulloblastoma is a common and aggressive type of brain tumor in children, consisting of four molecular subgroups. Traditional methods of treatment with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy result in an incomplete response with serious side effects. Immunotherapy using the blockade of immune checkpoints such as PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA4 has increased its prominence in solid tumor therapies. However, its application has been disappointing in brain tumors. Thus, alternative and poorly described immunological checkpoints could be revealed as interesting targets for medulloblastoma therapy.
Meduloblastoma é um tipo comum e agressivo de tumor cerebral em crianças, constituído por quatro subgrupos moleculares. Os métodos tradicionais de tratamento como cirurgia, radioterapia e quimioterapia geralmente resultam numa resposta incompleta e com efeitos colaterais graves. A imunoterapia usando o bloqueio checkpoints imunológicos como PD-1, PD-L1 e CTLA4 tem aumentado o seu relevo nas abordagens terapêuticas de tumores sólidos. No entanto, a sua aplicação, tem sido decepcionante em tumores cerebrais.
Cláudia Martins1,2,3, Catarina Pacheco1,2,4, Catarina Moreira-Barbosa1,2,3, Ângela Marques-Magalhães1,2,3, Sofia Dias1,2,3, Marco Araújo1,2, Maria J. Oliveira1,2,3, Bruno Sarmento1,2,4*
1i3S – Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen 208, 4200-393 Porto, Portugal.
Apesar de ser o tipo mais prevalente e letal de cancro cerebral em adultos, o glioblastoma (GBM) permanece incurável. Sistemas promissores de nanopartículas (NPs) anti-GBM têm sido desenvolvidos para melhorar o desempenho anti-cancerígeno de diversos fármacos, com ênfase em estratégias de direcionamento específico para o local dos tumores. No entanto, existe uma falta de modelos in vitro que emulem o microambiente e a bioarquitetura nativos do GBM, dificultando a translação de novos fármacos devido à incapacidade de prever a potencial resposta in vivo/clínica de uma forma fidedigna.
The aggressiveness of melanoma and lack of effective therapies incite the discovery of novel strategies. Recently, a new dual acting hybrid molecule (HM), combining a triazene and a ʟ-tyrosine analogue, was synthesized. HM was designed to specifically be activated by tyrosinase, the enzyme involved in melanin biosynthesis and overexpressed in melanoma.
Apesar dos progressos da medicina, o tratamento do melanoma maligno continua a ser um enorme desafio devido à inexistência de terapias eficazes, bem como o desenvolvimento de resistências aos tratamentos disponíveis. De forma a ultrapassar as limitações terapêuticas existentes, uma equipa de investigadores das Universidades de Lisboa, Coimbra e Utrecht publicaram, recentemente, um ensaio pré-clínico com resultados muito promissores no tratamento do melanoma.
