Scientists discover new ideas for treating cancer

Scientists have been exploring ways to treat cancer. In order to improve endurance, athletes may go to high altitudes to train. Inspired by this type of training, Israeli scientists have allowed T cells that can kill cancer cells to undergo "hypoxia training", improve their combat effectiveness, and bring new ideas to the treatment of cancer.

T cells are white blood cells that kill cancer cells. The Weizmann Institute of Science extracted T cells from mice, cultured them in an oxygen-poor environment, and placed the other part in an environment with an oxygen concentration of only 1%, then injected them into two groups. In mice with melanoma. T cells cultured in an oxygen-deficient environment significantly inhibit tumors.

Guy Shekhar, who led the research, said: "Like altitude training can increase people's endurance, letting (cancer cells) killer T cells do 'fitness exercise' can also make them significantly stronger."

This research report was published in the American Journal of Cell Reports.

The current method of killing cancer cells using T cells is to extract T cells from the blood of the patient and "chnow" them in the culture dish to recognize the cancer cells and put them back into the patient's body. However, this method is mainly suitable for leukemia and lymphoma. It is not suitable for solid tumors without liquid and saclike structures, because the extracellular liquid oxygen concentration of solid tumors is only 0.5% to 5%, which is lower than most normal organs. A typical 20% oxygen concentration in a conventional dish liquid is much lower.

Solid tumor cells can gain energy by effectively utilizing glucose even in environments with low oxygen concentrations, and the combative power of T cells in this environment is greatly reduced.