A person, like any living creature, can be vaccinated against cancer, although this disease is fundamentally different from viral infections against which vaccines are traditionally used.
This has been proven by scientists at Ohio University, who developed a methodology for the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Animal studies have shown 90% effectiveness of this therapy and complete safety for the body.
Cancer tumors are extremely insidious and have a defense mechanism against the body’s immune system in the form of the signaling protein PD-1. It is present on both healthy and cancerous cells, and is responsible for the friend-or-foe recognition procedure when immune B and T cells approach them. As long as PD-1 proteins in cancer cells and PD-L1 proteins in lymphocytes are working normally, the immune system simply ignores the infection, not seeing it as a target to attack.
The idea of Dr. Pravin Kaumay, the developer of the inhibitors, is to interfere with the identification procedure. For this purpose, special monoclonal antibodies have been developed, which are injected into the body, seek out PD-1 proteins and settle on them, preventing proper contact with PD-L1 proteins. Lymphocytes cannot recognize these cells and automatically start the procedure for destroying them – the immune system itself begins to eradicate cancerous tumors in the body.
More importantly, blocking the signaling system destroys the usual comfortable environment for cancer cells, they are constantly threatened, cannot grow and spread throughout the body.
This is the beneficial effect of vaccination with inhibitors – this therapy is called PD1-Vaxx. The technology has been thoroughly tested, it uses second-generation inhibitors, which are much more effective. The first human patients have already been recruited in the US and Australia to test PD1-Vaxx.
