CANCER

Bloodwise 11
STRATEGIC REPORT
HIDING FROM THE IMMUNE POLICE
Many cells, such as white blood cells,
patrol the body to seek out foreign
invaders or rogue cells and flag them for
destruction. To avoid this, cancer cells may
send out ‘I’m friendly’ signals to make them invisible
to the immune system. Scientists are developing ways
to unveil this invisibility cloak to usher in a killer
immune attack.
Professor Francesco Dazzi at Kings College London
has a £1 million programme to develop ways, using
different facets of the immune system, to overcome
this immune cloaking to unleash a killer response.
These sorts of approaches have the potential to be
truly personalised.
We’re also supporting early stage clinical trials in
Oxford and Southampton to test new modified immune
proteins that stick to leukaemia or lymphoma cells and
flag them to other killer white blood cells.
THE HALLMARKS OF CANCER
IGNORING THE RED LIGHT
Cells are constantly monitoring and
receiving signals from the surrounding
environment. The signals determine when new cells
are needed and when growth should be stopped. These
provide a counter-balance to the ‘go’ signals and make
sure cells are put in sleep mode at the right times.
Cancer cells acquire genetic faults that mean they are
insensitive to growth-preventing signals from their
neighbours that normally act as safety valves against
uncontrolled cell growth.
Dr Jonathan Strefford at the University of Southampton
has a £250,000 project that will use cultured and
isolated leukaemia cells to discover how faults in a key
protein prevent chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL)
cells from being pushed to cell death by surrounding
signals or drugs. This will help us better understand
disease progression and to develop ways to overcome
drug resistance.
ENDLESS NEW CELLS
Chromosomes – the packets of genetic
material in our cells – have protective
caps at their ends, like the plastic at the
ends of shoelaces. As normal cells grow
and divide, these protective caps get nibbled away.
When they get too short, the cell enters sleep mode or
activates its cell death program. This means normal
cells have a finite limit on the number of divisions –
another safety mechanism to prevent uncontrolled
growth.
Certain genetic faults, however, can cause overactivation
of proteins that keep lengthening the
protective caps, meaning they’re capable of limitless
growth and division. The DNA in these immortal cells
become more and more damaged over time, leading to
cancer.
When a protein called NF-kB switches on it triggers a
cell to multiply. Faults in this protein can cause it to
become permanently active, pushing the cell towards
endless growth. Professor Guido Franzoso’s team
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