Here’s the latest verified science behind the headline “Scientists discover protein that unmask cancer cells, boosting the immune system’s power” — focused on how cancer cells hide from immune attack and how researchers are finding ways to expose them so the immune system can eliminate them:
ScienceDaily
News-Medical
Vanguard News
New Protein-Targeting Strategy Helps Reveal Cancer to the Immune System
What’s the core discovery?
Researchers at MIT and Stanford have developed a new type of protein-based therapeutic that effectively removes or blocks the sugar “shield” some cancer cells use to stay hidden from immune cells. Normally, cancer cells decorate themselves with complex sugars (called glycans) that suppress immune recognition. By targeting these sugars with engineered proteins, scientists can unmask the cancer cells, making them visible to and attackable by the immune system.
How does it work?
-
Tumors use sugar molecules on their surface to send a “don’t attack me” signal to immune cells.
-
The new therapy uses engineered proteins combining a tumor-targeting antibody with a sugar-binding component called a lectin.
-
These hybrid proteins, called AbLecs, bind to the sugars and prevent them from engaging immune inhibitory receptors, effectively reversing the immune brake and enabling immune cells to recognize and kill the cancer.
This approach is conceptually different from classic checkpoint inhibitors (like anti-PD-1/PD-L1 drugs, which block immune-inhibitory protein interactions) because it targets sugar-based immune evasion mechanisms.
