IPO Porto researchers create prototype cancer vaccine

Researchers from the Portuguese Institute of Oncology (IPO) in Porto are developing a vaccine that, based on sugars present in tumor cells, is designed to train the immune system to respond to solid tumors, helping to treat cancer.

In a conversation with Lusa, researcher José Alexandre Ferreira explained that the vaccine prototype developed is the result of more than ten years of work.

The researchers began by trying to understand changes in glycosylation patterns, or how the sugars that coat cells change in cancer and disease progression.

“We found that the most aggressive tumor cells in a group of tumors lose the ability to express these more complex and abundant sugars, starting to express immature and much simpler sugars,” said a specialist from the CI Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics group. – IPOP.

This discovery was the “starting point” of work that subsequently attempted to determine which proteins were associated with these sugars and to understand their biological function.

“We thought it would be interesting to create tools that train the immune system to respond to cells that have these glycosylation changes, cells that are actively involved in the process of disease aggressiveness and spread,” he said.

The investigation went through a number of stages, culminating in a vaccine prototype that has now been patented.

About 80% of solid tumors, both early and very late stages, express these changes, “which means the range of applications is very wide.” This sugar change was also detected in metastases.

“We have evidence that these glycosylation patterns can be found in bladder, stomach and rectal tumors, among many others,” he said.

At the moment, the vaccine is at the preclinical stage and has already been tested “in vitro” and “in vivo”, namely on mice.

“The goal was to see if we could induce a safe, specific immune response that could recognize tumor cells,” he said, noting that the results confirmed the vaccine’s effectiveness.

The vaccine has been shown to not only generate antibodies that recognize tumor cells, but also “creates some immunological memory that opens the door to thinking about protection against relapse.”

Despite the “promising results,” several challenges remain to be overcome before clinical application, mainly related to the immunosuppressive environment caused by the most aggressive tumors.

The team is already exploring new molecules to enhance the immune response and combining this solution with existing treatments.

“It is important that people understand the progress that has been made, but it is also important to note that this is a lengthy validation process to ensure that the solution presented to the patient is safe, effective and adds value,” he added.

In a conversation with Lusa, the coordinator of the molecular oncology and viral pathology group of the research center, Lucio Lara, emphasized that there will be “evidence and counter-evidence” that the vaccine works, is useful, does not cause harm to patients and “can prove that the vaccine works, is useful, does not cause harm patients and may be useful.” be a good weapon.”

Only after the trial results are communicated to the responsible authorities “will it be possible to design a clinical trial,” he added.

“We have a logical research idea, we have all the ingredients to make it work, we are in the preclinical phase to ensure that what we expect will be evidence that will allow us to move on to the clinical part,” said He. added.

The study involved experts from the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S), the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences, the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and REQUIMTE – the associated laboratory of green chemistry.