Nothing like a little medical jibber jabber poured into this poor laymens mind to create a good old fashioned headache. In trying to research what the MEDI4736 clinical trial is all about I ran across a table of like trials and saw headings like:
- Biologic [B7H1-specific engineered human IgG1]
- Roles [T cell activation and tolerance]
Being the Google searching dweeb that I am I couldn’t help but dig a little deeper. Unfortunately I ran into sentences like: “Antigen-induced activation and proliferation of T cells are regulated by both positive and negative costimulatory receptors of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily.” which simply leave my head swimming and my eyes glazing over.
Then I found the abstract that went along with the table I had been looking at.
Advances in targeting cell surface signalling molecules for immune modulation
Sheng Yao, Yuwen Zhu & Lieping Chen
Abstract
The past decade has witnessed a surge in the development of immunomodulatory approaches to combat a broad range of human diseases, including cancer, viral infections, autoimmunity and inflammation as well as in the prevention of transplant rejection. Immunomodulatory approaches mostly involve the use of monoclonal antibodies or recombinant fusion proteins that target cell surface signalling molecules on immune cells to drive immune responses towards the desired direction. Advances in our understanding of the human immune system, along with valuable lessons learned from the first generation of therapeutic biologics, are aiding the design of the next generation of immunomodulatory biologics with better therapeutic efficacy, minimized adverse effects and long-lasting clinical benefit. The recent encouraging results from antibodies targeting programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) and B7 homolog 1 (B7H1; also known as PDL1) for the treatment of various advanced human cancers show that immunomodulatory therapy has come of age.
Thankfully I’m just smart enough to understand most of the abstract if not the actual research papers. Let’s hope that these researchers from the Yale University, Department of Immunobiology are correct and that this new therapy truly has come of age.
Stephanie Anderson said:
I am continuing to pray for you, and for God to open this door for you. Thanks for continuing to share!
Keri Jacobs said:
This makes my head spin and I don’t get any of it. I feel inclined to talk to Demetrios, who is also at Yale.
Whatever it all means… I just hope the Lord uses it to heal you.
Keri
John said:
Makes perfect sense to me… They forgot to point out the cross reactivity of the cascading antigen immunoreflux which inhibits the receptor elongation protein therefore reducing the T-helper cell cross load 🙂 I give thanks for smart doctors and smarter researchers. Hope you are recovering from the last chemo well. Are you being mistaken for Mr. Clean yet?
Michael Kenney said:
LOL, thanks for the chuckle John. No, no Mr. Clean yet but I do think things have thinned out a bit more on top than before I started, but it’s kind of hard to tell as short as I keep it.
Demetrios Braddock said:
Praying for you and thinking about you, Mike. Your strength, humor, and optimism inspire even Yale cancer researchers in their smelly underfunded laboratories to keep at it!