We can hack our immune cells to fight cancer | Elizabeth Wayne

翻译人员: Jessica Chen 校对人员: jacks peng

After decades of research

在经过了几十年的临床实验研究，

and billions of dollars spent in clinical trials,

花费了数十亿美元之后，

we still have a problem with cancer drug delivery.

我们仍然没有解决癌症药物递送的问题。

We still give patients chemotherapy,

我们仍然在让患者们接受化疗，

which is so non-specific

但这一方法非常缺乏针对性，

that even though it kills the cancer cells,

虽然杀死了癌症细胞，

it kind of kills the rest of your body, too.

但也几乎杀死了你体内的正常细胞。

And yes, we have developed more selective drugs,

没错，我们已经开发了 更多选择性治疗的药物，

but it's still a challenge to get them into the tumor,

但是仍然难以准确地 把它们送到肿瘤那里，

and they end up accumulating in the other organs as well

它们最后也会聚集到其它器官，

or passing through your urine,

或者随着尿液流失，

which is a total waste.

白白被浪费掉了。

And fields like mine have emerged

于是就出现了像我所从事的领域，

where we try to encapsulate these drugs

采用的方法是把这些药物封装起来，

to protect them as they travel through the body.

使它们在抵达目标前完好无损。

But these modifications cause problems

但是这些改造会导致其它的问题，

that we make more modifications to fix.

需要我们做出更多的改变去修复。

So what I'm really trying to say is we need a better drug delivery system.

所以，我真正想讨论的是， 我们需要一个更好的药物递送系统。

And I propose,

我提议，

rather than using solely human design,

与其使用纯人工设计，

why not use nature's?

为什么不用天然的呢？

Immune cells are these versatile vehicles that travel throughout our body,

免疫细胞是我们身体中运行的 一种多功能交通工具，

patrolling for signs of disease

巡查疾病的踪迹，

and arriving at a wound mere minutes after injury.

并在身体受伤后的 仅几分钟内就能抵达伤口。

So I ask you guys:

我想问问你们：

If immune cells are already traveling to places of injury or disease

如果免疫细胞本就能够

到达我们身体的伤口或患处，

in our bodies,

why not add an extra passenger?

为什么不再加一个乘客呢？

Why not use immune cells to deliver drugs

为什么不用免疫细胞来递送药物

to cure some of our biggest problems

去解决我们疾病中的

in disease?

一些大问题呢？

I am a biomedical engineer,

我是一个生物医学工程师，

and I want to tell you guys a story about how I use immune cells

我想跟你们讲一个关于 我是如何使用免疫细胞

to target one of the largest problems in cancer.

来解决癌症中最主要问题的故事。

Did you know that over 90 percent of cancer deaths

你们知不知道，超过90%的癌症死因

can be attributed to its spread?

是由于癌细胞的扩散？

So if we can stop these cancer cells

那么如果我们可以阻止这些癌细胞

from going from the primary tumor to a distant site,

从一个原发肿瘤扩散到其他位点，

we can stop cancer right in its tracks

我们就可以在癌症的发展过程中进行干预，

and give people more of their lives back.

从而延长患者的生命。

To do this special mission,

为了完成这个特殊任务，

we decided to deliver a nanoparticle made of lipids,

我们决定递送一种脂质纳米颗粒，

which are the same materials that compose your cell membrane.

和组成你的细胞膜用的是同一种材料。

And we've added two special molecules.

我们还加入了两个特殊的分子。

One is called e-selectin,

一个叫内皮细胞选择素，

which acts as a glue

可以起到胶水的作用，

that binds the nanoparticle to the immune cell.

把纳米颗粒粘在免疫细胞上。

And the second one is called trail.

第二个叫TRAIL。

Trail is a therapeutic drug that kills cancer cells

TRAIL是一种用来杀死癌症细胞，

but not normal cells.

而对正常细胞不起作用的治疗性药物。

Now, when you put both of these together,

当你把这两种分子放在一起，

you have a mean killing machine on wheels.

就有了一个带轮子的猎杀机器。

To test this, we ran an experiment in a mouse.

我们在老鼠上进行了测试。

So what we did was we injected the nanoparticles,

我们所做的就是，先注射纳米颗粒，

and they bound almost immediately to the immune cells in the bloodstream.

它们几乎立即就粘上了血液中的免疫细胞。

And then we injected the cancer cells to mimic a process

然后我们注射了癌细胞来模拟

through which cancer cells spread throughout our bodies.

癌细胞扩散到全身的过程。

And we found something very exciting.

我们观察到了一些非常令人兴奋的现象。

We found that in our treated group,

我们发现在治疗组里，

over 75 percent of the cancer cells we initially injected were dead or dying,

一开始被注射的癌细胞中有 超过75%死了，或濒临死亡，

in comparison to only around 25 percent.

而对照组的数字只有25%上下。

So just imagine: these fewer amount of cells were available

想象一下：这些更少量的细胞

to actually be able to spread to a different part of the body.

本可以扩散到身体的不同部位。

这个过程仅发生在治疗开始的两个小时之后。

And this is only after two hours of treatment.

Our results were amazing, and we had some pretty interesting press.

我们的结果令人惊奇， 而且我们发表了非常有趣的新闻稿。

My favorite title was actually,

我最钟爱的标题其实是，

"Sticky balls may stop the spread of cancer."

“粘粘球可以阻止癌症扩散。”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

我无法描述我的男同事们 在得知他们的粘粘球

I can't tell you just how smug my male colleagues were,

有一天可能治愈癌症时，是如何沾沾自喜的。

knowing that their sticky balls might one day cure cancer.

（笑声）

(Laughter)

But I can tell you they made some pretty, pretty, exciting,

但是我可以告诉你们，他们制作了 一些非常非常令人兴奋，

pretty ballsy t-shirts.

非常有种的T恤衫。

This was also my first experience talking to patients

我也第一次与患者进行了交谈，

where they asked how soon our therapy would be available.

他们询问我们的治疗方法 多快可以投入使用。

And I keep these stories with me to remind me of the importance

我用这些故事来不断提醒自己

of the science, the scientists and the patients.

科学、科学家和患者的重要性。

Now, our fast-acting results were pretty interesting,

我们立竿见影的结果非常有趣，

但是我们还有一个遗留问题：

but we still had one lingering question:

Can our sticky balls,

我们的粘粘球，

our particles actually attached to the immune cells,

那些附在免疫细胞上的颗粒，

actually stop the spread of cancer?

真的可以阻止癌症的扩散吗？

So we went to our animal model, and we found three important parts.

我们查看了动物模型， 发现了三个重要部分。

Our primary tumors were smaller in our treated animals,

在接受治疗的动物中，原发肿瘤细胞变小了，

there were fewer cells in circulation,

血液循环中的癌细胞也更少，

and there was little to no tumor burden in the distant organs.

并且距离癌细胞较远的器官 也鲜少，或完全没有感染肿瘤。

Now, this wasn't just a victory for us and our sticky balls.

这不仅是我们和我们的粘粘球的胜利。

This was also a victory to me

这也是我个人

in drug delivery,

在药物递送中的胜利，

and it represents a paradigm shift,

这代表着一个范式转移，

a revolution --

一场革命——

to go from just using drugs, just injecting them

从原先仅仅使用药物，仅仅只是注射它们，

and hoping they go to the right places in the body,

希望它们到体内正确的地方去，

to using immune cells as special delivery drivers in your body.

到现在，我们能把免疫细胞作为 身体里的特殊运送司机。

For this example, we used two molecules, e-selectin and trail,

这个例子里，我们使用了两个分子， 内皮细胞选择素和TRAIL，

but really, the possibility of drugs you can use are endless.

但事实上，你可以使用的药物是无限的。

And I talked about cancer,

我谈论的是癌症，

but where disease goes, so do immune cells.

但疾病出现在哪里，免疫细胞就会赶去哪里。

So this could be used for any disease.

所以该方法有可能被应用于任何疾病。

想象一下脊柱受损后， 使用免疫细胞来递送关键的

Imagine using immune cells to deliver crucial wound-healing agents

after a spinal cord injury,

伤口愈合剂，

or using immune cells to deliver drugs past the blood-brain barrier

或使用免疫细胞 越过血脑屏障来递送药物，

to treat Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease.

去治疗帕金森症或阿尔兹海默症。

These are the ideas that excite me about science the most.

这些是最让我对科学感到兴奋的想法。

And from where I stand, I see so much promise and opportunity.

通过我的视角，我看到了 如此多的前景和机会。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）