Massachusetts Institute of Technology: New nanoparticles stimulate the immune system to attack ovarian tumors
- Global Research Partnerships
- Oct 31
- 1 min read
Cancer immunotherapy, which uses drugs that stimulate the body's immune cells to attack tumors, is a promising approach to treating many types of cancer. However, it doesn't work well for some tumors, including ovarian cancer.
To elicit a better response, MIT researchers have designed new nanoparticles that can deliver an immune-stimulating molecule called IL-12 directly to ovarian tumors. When given along with immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors, IL-12 helps the immune system launch an attack on cancer cells.
Studying a mouse model of ovarian cancer, the researchers showed that this combination treatment could eliminate metastatic tumors in more than 80 percent of the mice. When the mice were later injected with more cancer cells, to simulate tumor recurrence, their immune cells remembered the tumor proteins and cleared them again.
