Teddy Bear Hospital. photo by National Cancer Institute/ Unsplash
Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) said that for the first time in history, they succeeded in encoding a toxin produced by bacteria into mRNA (messenger RNA) molecules that can literally make cancer cells poison themselves. Once delivered directly to cancer cells, these particles cause the cells to produce the toxin themselves, eventually killing them. The scientists said they have so far had a success rate of 50%.
After a single injection into the tumor bed in animal models with melanoma, 44-60% of the cancer cells disappeared completely and permanently.
The groundbreaking cancer study was led by PhD student Yasmin Granot-Matok and Prof. Dan Peer, a pioneer in the development of RNA therapeutics and Head of the Nanomedicine Laboratory at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, also serving as TAU’s VP R&D. The study’s results were published in Theranostics.
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Israeli high-tech firms and scientists have always been at the forefront of medical research and breakthroughs including cancer. In June, Jewish Business News reported on how NVision Imaging, an Israeli startup and developer of MRI polarizers and hyperpolarized imaging agents that could help with faster and more accurate cancer diagnosis and treatment, raised $30 million in a Series A fundraise. And Compugen Ltd., an Israeli clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company, announced that the first patient has been dosed in the triple immunotherapy combination proof-of-concept study evaluating COM701, a new medication for the treatment of ovarian cancer.
And Tel Aviv University, it seems, is constantly making new breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer. Also in June, Israeli scientists at TAU and the Sheba Medical Center revealed how melanoma cancer cells can form new lymphatic vessels in the dermis, the middle layer of the skin, in order to spread to other parts of the body. The researchers believe that this discovery could lead to new treatments for melanoma, including vaccines.
Prof. Peer explains: “Many bacteria secrete toxins. The most famous of these is probably the botulinum toxin injected in Botox treatments. Another classic treatment technique is chemotherapy, involving the delivery of small molecules through the bloodstream to effectively kill cancer cells. However, chemotherapy has a major downside: it is not selective, and also kills healthy cells. Our idea was to deliver safe mRNA molecules encoded for a bacterial toxin directly to the cancer cells – inducing these cells to actually produce the toxic protein that would later kill them. It’s like placing a Trojan horse inside the cancer cell.”
First, the research team encoded the genetic info of the toxic protein produced by bacteria of the pseudomonas family into mRNA molecules (resembling the procedure in which genetic info of COVID-19’s ‘spike’ protein was encoded into mRNA molecules to create the vaccine). The mRNA molecules were then packaged in lipid nanoparticles developed in Prof. Peer’s laboratory and coated with antibodies – to make sure that the instructions for producing the toxin would reach their target, the cancer cells. The particles were injected into the tumors of animal models with melanoma skin cancer. After a single injection, 44-60% of the cancer cells vanished.
Other contributors to the study included: Dr. Assaf Ezra, Dr. Srinivas Ramishetti, Dr. Preeti Sharma Dr. Gonna Somu Naidu and Prof. Itai Benhar, Head of the Antibody Engineering Lab at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at TAU. The study was funded by the Shmunis Family Foundation for Biomedicine and Cancer Research.
