Many people may not think that the seemingly "fashionable" and "advanced" immunotherapy has been used to treat cancer for more than 100 years. As early as the end of 19, William B. Coley, an American orthopedic surgeon, unexpectedly found that the cancer of patients infected with Streptococcus pyogenes was relieved after operation, which opened the door to immunotherapy for the first time. He is also known as "the father of tumor immunotherapy". In 1960s, the "immune surveillance theory" put forward by Australian immunologist Burnet also provided an important theory for immunotherapy to treat cancer. Although immunotherapy seems to have a glimmer of light in practice and theory, how to activate one's own immune system, especially T cells (which can be understood as "cannon" to attack bacteria/cancer cells) to fight cancer has become an important research direction for scientists.
1987, a group of scientists from France discovered a transmembrane receptor CTLA4 (cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen) on T cells. Will this protein affect the function of T cells in cancer cells?
Professor James(Jim) P. Allison has been devoted to studying the interaction between the immune system (especially T cells) and cancer, especially the state of T cells in the case of cancer. Cancer cells seem to inhibit the function of T cells through a "braking" effect.
From 65438 to 0996, Jim Allison found CTLA 4 as a "brake" for the first time in mouse experiments. Inhibition of CTLA 4 can activate T cells to attack cancer continuously. In the subsequent human studies, CTLA-4 antibody performed well, which brought hope to melanoma patients. 20 1 1 On March 25th, the drug ipilimumab (Yervoy) made of CTLA-4 antibody was approved by FDA for the treatment of metastatic melanoma, which was a victory of immunotherapy. Although Jim Allison was not the first person to put forward immunotherapy to treat cancer, Jim did apply immunotherapy to the practice of CTLA 4, which also provided a new idea for later immunotherapy to treat cancer. When it comes to CTLA 4, we have to mention another "brake" molecule-PD1. 1992, Professor Tasuku Honjo Tasuku Honjo, an immunologist at Kyoto University, discovered another important immunosuppressive receptor molecule PD 1 (programmed death 1) on T cells. However, it was seven years ago that PD 1 was really associated with immunity, thanks to Chen Lieping, a famous China science professor at Yale University. They found that the ligand molecule PD L 1 on the surface of tumor cells will bind to PD 1, thus inhibiting the activation of T cells, which provides an important experimental basis for the future treatment of cancer with PD 1 immunotherapy.