{"id":143997,"date":"2025-11-20T18:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/143997\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T18:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:37:08","slug":"new-weizmann-strategy-recruits-rogue-immune-cells-to-help-destroy-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/143997\/","title":{"rendered":"New Weizmann Strategy Recruits Rogue Immune Cells To Help Destroy Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel say they have engineered a new kind of cancer drug that turns a tumor\u2019s own defenses against it, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Cell. Working in mice and on human tumor samples, the team reports that their experimental molecules, called MiTEs, can reawaken the immune system inside tumors that had resisted standard immunotherapy.<\/p>\n<p>The work centers on macrophages, immune cells that normally patrol tissues but inside tumors often switch sides and help the cancer grow. \u201cFor years we have known that in cancer, macrophages can be both the problem and the solution,\u201d says Prof. Ido Amit, director of Weizmann\u2019s Immunotherapy Research Center. \u201cTumors hijack them to suppress immune responses and promote their own growth. Our goal has been to re-educate these cells rather than remove them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-170946\" class=\"size-full wp-image-170946\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IA_group_1b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"286\" height=\"369\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-170946\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prof. Ido Amit, director of Weizmann Institute\u2019s Immunotherapy Research Center. (Weizmann Institute)<\/p>\n<p>Earlier studies from Amit\u2019s lab and others identified a subset of macrophages carrying high levels of a receptor called TREM2, strongly linked with poor response to immunotherapy and lower survival rates. The new MiTEs are engineered antibodies that latch onto these TREM2-bearing macrophages while at the same time delivering a dose of IL-2, a powerful immune-activating cytokine, to nearby killer T cells and natural killer cells.<\/p>\n<p>To avoid triggering dangerous, body-wide immune reactions, the IL-2 portion of MiTEs is \u201cmasked\u201d and only switched on by enzymes inside the tumor. \u201cThe dual function of MiTEs enables them to attack the tumor from multiple immune angles at once,\u201d explains Michelle von Locquenghien, a doctoral student in Weizmann\u2019s Department of Systems Immunology.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-170947\" class=\"size-full wp-image-170947\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IA_group_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"298\" height=\"369\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-170947\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doctoral student Michelle von Locquenghien. (Weizmann Institute)<\/p>\n<p>In mice, MiTE treatment shrank tumors and reshaped the immune landscape; in human kidney cancer samples, it sparked strong immune activation. \u201cThe future of immunotherapy lies in combining safety with precision\u2014reprogramming the immune ecosystem from the inside rather than targeting cancer cells directly,\u201d says Amit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel say they have engineered a new kind of cancer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-143997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}