What is immunotherapy of dendritic cells?
Dendritic cells are part of the immune system that plays an important role in the defense of the body. The cells naturally eat attackers and then depict the pieces of the attacker on the outside of the cells. This allows the body to identify the characteristic pieces of the attacker and prepare for a later invasion with the same pathogen. Scientists think they can use this natural cellular mechanism and use it in the treatment of cancer as a technique called dendritic cell immunotherapy. Since 2011, scientists have seen the potential to use dendritic cells to display tumors, so the immune system can target destruction tumor cells.
Since their discovery in the second half of the 20th century, dendritic cells and the way they work were studied by scientists. The name comes from their appearance under the microscope, because the cells have many branches like a tree. In Greek it means a tree dendron . These cells are found in the areas of the bodies are the first line of defense against infection such as the skin, and are also located in the parts of the bodyEré is strongly involved in an immune response such as lymph nodes and spleen.
When a dendritic cell encounters an attacker, the cell of the attacker and breaks it on the fragments. Fragments that are potentially useful as identification marks for the immune system, such as molecules present on the outside of the attacker, are displayed on the outside of dendritic cells. After the cell is exposed to this attacker, he moves to lymph nodes and spleen, because these are parts of the body that act as a base for interaction of immune response cells. The visible molecules on the outside of the dendritic cell then act as signals for other immune cells present in the spleen or lymph node to create a specific reaction to this particular attacker.
tumor cells are not infectious substances such as viruses or bacteria, but they are undesirable cells. Usually dendritic cellIt does not kill, eat and shows pieces of tumor cells on its outside. This is because tumor cells originally come from a mutated normal cell body that dendritic cell does not recognize as an attacker. Also, the tumors do not create abnormal molecules sufficiently to detect and destroy the immune system. However, immunotherapy of dendritic cells is a technique that highlights the immune cell tumor cells.
In laboratory conditions, dendritic cells are mixed with molecules that are specific to a particular tumor. In the laboratory, dendritic cells recognize the tumor molecules and display them on the outside of their cells. Once cells are injected into the patient's body, immunotherapy of dendritic cells can potentially alert the immune system to the threat of tumor cells. Since 2011, approaches to cancer therapy in the field of dendritic cell immunotherapy are still in research. Although the field has a hypothetical potential in cancer therapy, the effectiveness of treatment with this technicKY has not been known since 2011.