Immune vaccine helps body fight cancer

Cancer Research UK-funded scientists have discovered that linking a molecule which initiates antibody production, to a "saboteur" molecule,  triggers the immune system to selectively destroy faulty cells. These  findings, published in the April 23 issue of the journal Blood, could  potentially be used to selectively destroy tumor cells while ignoring  healthy cells.

Mice were immunized with an antigen linked to a CpG saboteur molecule.  The antigen smuggled the CpG into specific cells to trigger the immune  response system to produce antibodies that could potentially seek and  destroy cancer cells.

The scientists demonstrated that mice immunized with different  antigen-CpG complexes had boosted antibody responses when compared with  immunisation with the same antigen not linked to CpG. This demonstrated  that the antigen was able to sneak CpG into the immune response hub of  the cell.