A technological breakthrough by medical researchers at Tel Aviv University enabled the discovery of a cancer mechanism that prevents the immune system from attacking tumors. The researchers were surprised to find that reversing this mechanism stimulates the immune system to fight the cancer cells, even in types of cancer considered resistant to prevailing forms of immunotherapy. The breakthrough was led by Prof.
Carmit Levy, Prof. Yaron Carmi, and Ph.D.
student Avishai Maliah from TAU's Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, and the paper is published in the journal Nature Communications . Prof. Levy says, "It all happened by coincidence.
My lab studies both cancer and the effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun on our skin and body—both of which are known to suppress the immune system. Cancer suppresses approaching immune cells and solar radiation suppresses the skin's immune system. "While in most cases, we cancer researchers worldwide focus on the tumor and look for mechanisms by which cancer inhibits the immune system, here we proposed a different approach: investigating how UV exposure suppresses the immune system and applying our findings to cancer.
The discovery of a mechanism that inhibits the immune system opens new paths for innovative therapies." Prof. Levy adds, "With this idea in mind, I asked my colleague Prof.
Yaron Carmi, a global expert on the immune system, to join the study. Avishai Maliah, an MD/Ph.D.
candidate in my lab, led the project. The f.