Computational approaches used to develop dendritic cell production in Portugal
A group of Portuguese researchers is paving the way for the creation of anti-tumor vaccines and new approaches to the immune system, namely through chemoinformatics and bioinformatics. The goal is to improve the treatment of cancer patients.
Entitled DC Matters, this project brings together experts from CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research, the Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Porto (IPO-Porto), the Faculty of Science and Technology of the New University of Lisbon (FCT NOVA), and the Portuguese company Stemmatters.
The main goal is to enable the production of vaccines based on new-generation dendritic cells, which combine immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) – a kind of brake on the immune response – with the ability to help the immune system recognize and attack cancer cells.
In an article published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, the team of Florbela Pereira and Paula Videira, researchers at DC Matters at FCT NOVA, identifies, through computational techniques, new compounds capable of inhibiting immune checkpoints. This innovation is considered essential to produce more and better dendritic cells for antitumor immune therapy.
According to Paula Videira, “Dendritic cells have a very important role at the immunological level. They orchestrate the immune response, both by activating the immune system against tumor cells, but also by creating an immune tolerance, which is no longer beneficial in anti-tumor therapy. Portuguese Researchers “Pave the Way” for New Solutions for Cancer Treatment
This balance has to be managed very finely at the laboratory level.”
The team’s research has focused on a promising line of study. According to the expert, “therapies that prevent PD-1/PD-L1 interaction allow immune cells to re-establish an immune response against tumor cells. These immune checkpoint inhibitors are very promising in the treatment of several types of cancers, including skin, lung, and bladder cancer”.
In addition to Paula Videira, the study had the participation of researchers Florbela Pereira, Patrícia Sobral, Vanessa Luz, and João Almeida.
The research “DC Matters – Combination of dendritic cell vaccine with immune checkpoint inhibitors as first-line therapy in patients with solid malignancies” is funded by Portugal 2020.
