Miguel Bronchud, Veteran Cancer Clinician, Researcher, Co-Founder and ex Advisory Board at Regenerative Medicine Solutions, shared on LinkedIn:
“Do autoantibodies shape cancer immunosurveillance?
See:
Paul Bastard et al (2026)
Title: Do autoantibodies shape cancer immunosurveillance?
Authors: Paul Bastard, Tyler Hulett, Karl Smith-Byrne, Nils Landegren, Trine H. Mogensen, Jacques Fellay, Ruth C. Travis, Jean-Laurent Casanova, Chi V. Dang, Xin Lu
Scientists have long sought to understand why some people with no known risk factors develop cancer while others with significant risk never do.
The answer may lie (at least “partially”) in immune proteins known as autoantibodies (auto-Abs)?
So suggests a commentary published in Cell co-authored by a team that includes Jean-Laurent Casanova, M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense and Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI).
See also: Autoantibodies could shape cancer risk, growth and response to immunotherapy
by UT Southwestern Medical Center
edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Andrew Zinin
Humans have billions of different antibodies, proteins randomly produced by the immune system that can bind to molecules known as antigens, including those found on bacteria, viruses, fungi, toxins or allergens.
Antibodies can neutralize these threats or mark them for destruction by immune cells, helping the body fight off infections.
However, in people with autoimmune diseases, antibodies mistakenly bind to normal molecules in the body.
These auto-Abs cause the immune system to attack healthy cells and tissues.
Research led by Casanova and others has shown that auto-Abs can target molecules called cytokines that the immune system uses to fight infectious diseases.
He and other scientists have discovered auto-Abs that bind to about a dozen of the 50 or so known cytokines so far, with ongoing research in the Casanova Lab and elsewhere aiming to identify more.
These auto-Abs have been linked to a growing range of infectious diseases, sometimes in significant proportions of patients, and, more recently, to an inflammatory condition.
Autoantibodies could shape cancer risk, growth and response to immunotherapy
As scientists have learned various ways the immune system interacts with cancer—findings that have resulted in immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitor drugs and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells – a growing hypothesis has suggested that other auto-Abs could influence cancer development and growth.
To test this idea, the ATLAS team – led by Paul Bastard, M.D., Ph.D., in the Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases at Imagine Institute of the Necker Hospital for Sick Children in Paris – will catalog and study auto-Abs in a large and diverse group of volunteers.
They will include people with genetic syndromes or behaviors known to promote cancer, such as heavy smokers, who have avoided the disease; aging individuals, including centenarians; identical and fraternal twins; and patients with cancers before, during and after they receive immunotherapies.
Looking forward to the results of this ambitious project.”
Other articles about immuno-oncology on OncoDaily.