Killing to Cure

Transforming tumours into harmless tissue already sounds like a dream come true; yet, incredibly, a team of scientists may have found a way to go even further. Their research uses antibodies, proteins that recognise and bind to specific cellular targets, and are instrumental to immune defences, to alter the behaviour of cells. Applying this technique to cancer, they discovered an antibody that can convert leukaemia cells into natural killers, cells of the immune system that detect and eliminate ailing or cancerous cells. Pictured, a newly re-programmed killer (to the left) extends its cellular tendrils, or dendrites, to attack a cancerous cell; it will only target other malignant cells, leaving healthy tissue alone. Although still in the early stages of research, therapies based on this mechanism have the potential to completely eliminate cancerous tissue, as the harmful cells should either become cancer-killers, or be destroyed by them.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Emmanuelle Briolat

Writer

A researcher specialising in visual signals in Lepidoptera, camouflage and the effects of light pollution, Emmanuelle’s writing covers a range of topics, from biomedical research to children’s books about moth defences.

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• Image adapted from work by Kyungmoo Yea and colleagues
• The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
• Copyright held by original authors
• Published in the PNAS, October 2015