How Squeezing Cells Could Lead to New Cancer Treatments

A new microfluidic device developed by SQZ Biotech can deliver microscopic material into cells quickly and effectively by vigorously squeezing the cells, which temporarily make the membranes permeable, according to a story from MIT Technology Review. The device could pave the way for cancer treatment breakthroughs, as it could deliver drugs into cells that normally reject foreign materials.

Despite the technology being only a research tool for now, it could be just what is needed to bring promising new cancer and HIV therapies to patients in desperate need of treatment. For years, many potentially transformative cancer treatments have faced a common obstacle-- getting drugs into cancerous cells that are designed to reject all foreign substances.

This new technology could be used in a new approach to cancer treatment known as immunotherapy, a form of treatment that involves modifying a patient's immune cells to effectively target specific cancerous cells. Immunotherapy typically involves delivering proteins or genetic material into the cells, usually by drawing blood and modifying the cells outside of the body, before injecting them back into the patient.

SQZ Biotech believes that this new device could potentially cut the costs of immunotherapy significantly, while also improving the effectiveness of the treatment, factors that have previously prevented the approach from being widely commercialized. In November, Dendreon, one of the initial pioneers of the immunotherapy movement, declared bankruptcy after its high-cost treatments failed to sell quickly enough.

Meanwhile, researchers continue to look for alternative methods to fine tune cells in an effort to improve their ability to deliver materials throughout the body. Earlier this year, researchers at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research began genetically modifying red blood cells to carry various genetic materials to specific sites in the body. The endgame being to hopefully put these genetically modified cells to use in new treatment therapies, as well as in diagnostics.

As for other alternative immunotherapy delivery methods, researchers have worked to use a virus to introduce genetic material into cell, which then triggers the cells to make proteins. However, this indirect approach can be both time consuming and costly. This new device works in seconds, and is small enough to be used bedside in hospitals, according to SQZ researchers.

Using the device is relatively simple as well. Doctors simply draw blood from the patient, extract white blood cells and deposit them into a reservoir in the device, along with whatever substance they want to introduce into the cells. Then, a pump forces the blood cells through 75 microscopic channels. Midway through the channel, the cells reach a constriction that squeezes them, forcing them to stretch out, which allows the new substance to be pushed into the cell.

The key in the whole process is forcing the cells through the constriction fast enough that their ordinary defense mechanisms have no time to react, says Jonathan Gilbert, former MIT researcher and the current business development manager of SQZ. This fast constriction of the cell leaves the cell membranes temporarily permeable, allowing proteins and other molecules to enter the cell. The treated cells are then injected back into the patient.

For now, SQZ's device is currently being used by a number of biologists, as the company enters the early stages of testing it for use with experimental treatments. One planned approach is to use it to introduce cancer-related proteins into immune cells, which will hopefully trigger a strong response from the immune system. Recent research has shown that such a strong response from the immune system can shrink tumors, providing a possible solution to many patients with cancerous tumors.

Regardless of the approach, the research has certainly opened up some promising avenues within the realm of immunotherapy. A branch of treatment that is certainly worth keeping an eye on in the future.

Kristopher Sturgis is a contributor to Qmed and MPMN.

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