2023-06-28 12:00:00
Why do some cancer patients not respond to immunotherapy? This is the question asked by an international team of researchers. To answer this, they conducted a study published in the journal Cell Genomics. As part of the work, the scientists analyzed a large set of genetic data from the UK Biobank, including nearly 500,000 volunteers including people with cancer. To gather more information, they contacted the patients. Some participants who received immunotherapy suffered side effects and took corticosteroids, called “glucocorticoids”, to treat them.
Corticosteroids: a lower survival rate in adults producing the Cystatin C protein
The authors found that glucocorticoids might indirectly lead to the failure of certain immunotherapy treatments. In detail, volunteers who were more likely to produce a protein, called “Cystatin C (CyC)”, in response to corticosteroids had a lower overall survival rate. This suggests that production of CyC, which is a secreted cysteine protease inhibitor, within a tumor may contribute to poorer cancer immunotherapy outcomes.
Tumors lacking the CyC protein grew more slowly
To confirm the link between CyC production and cancer, the team conducted an experiment in mice. She deleted a gene that produces CyC so that it is no longer present in cancer cells. According to the results, tumors lacking CyC grew more slowly. “This research prompted me to learn more regarding the function of this molecule, particularly in the context of cancer immunotherapy. Perhaps its function can be targeted to improve the success of immunotherapy,” concluded Tobias Janowitz, author of the research and Professor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), in a statement.
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