Could pathogen eating white blood cells become new cancer target?

PATHOGEN eating white blood cells that are tricked into promoting tumour growth instead of boosting immunity could become the target of new innovative cancer treatments.

Rather than assisting the body's immune system, as they do in healthy people, these scavenger white blood cells containing the protein CD68, have been found to eat away at human tissue on behalf of the tumour allowing space for it to expand and spread.

Several studies have already looked at ways in which to kill macrophages but success has so far been limited and has produced unwanted side effects.

Now researchers in Sheffield believe they may have developed a novel way in which to kill these cells at any point in disease progression through the use of a newly generated model system.

"We now wish to confirm our hypothesis that CD68 positive macrophages cause tumours to grow and spread by using our new inducible macrophage depletion system in a cancer model.

Provided by Yorkshire Cancer Research