Immunotherapy

Question 1

What kinds of immunotherapy is there?

Answer 1

Vaccines

Immune modulatory drugs

Biologicals

Cell therapies

Question 2

What is immunotherapy?

Answer 2

A form of cancer treatment that harnesses the body’s immune system to recognize, target, and eliminate cancer cells.

Question 3

What diseases respond to Immunotherapy?

Answer 3

Cancer

Autoimmune Diseases

Transplantation

Infectious Diseases

Question 4

What kinds of immunotherapies stimulate immune responses?

Answer 4

Adjuvants and antigens

Vaccines

Immune checkpoint blockade

Transfer of tumour specific T cells

Question 5

What kinds of immunotherapies suppress immune responses?

Answer 5

Monoclonal antibodies

Immunomodulators

Regulatory T cells

Question 6

What are prophylactic vaccines?

Answer 6

Used to stimulate protective immune memory in healthy individuals

Question 7

What are therapeutic vaccines?

Answer 7

Designed to stimulate immunity in patients who already have chronic infections or cancer.

Question 8

What are tolerogenic vaccines?

Answer 8

Induce immune tolerance instead of activation.

They suppress immune responses to treat autoimmune diseases.

They contain antigens and immunomodulatory agents to promote immune tolerance.

Question 9

How do mRNA vaccines work?

Answer 9

The vaccine contains mRNA encoding a specific antigen from the pathogen.

The mRNA is encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles and injected into the body.

Cells in the body, particularly antigen-presenting cells , take up the mRNA.

The mRNA is translated by the host cell’s machinery, leading to expression of the antigen within the cell.

The antigen is presented on the surface of the host cell, activating the immune system.

The immune system recognizes the antigen as foreign and mounts an immune response, including the production of antibodies and activation of T cells.

Question 10

What are Designed T cell vaccine?

Answer 10

Personalized cancer vaccines or neoantigen vaccines

Designed to harness the body’s immune system to target and eliminate cancer cells.

Question 11

What are immune modulatory drugs?

Answer 11

Small molecules that target signalling pathways, enzymes, cellular recognition, etc. to stimulate or suppress immunity

Question 12

When are immune modulatory drugs stimulants used?

Answer 12

Used to treat hypo-immune syndromes (adjuvants)

Question 13

What kinds of immune modulatory drugs are stimulants?

Answer 13

PRR activators

Cytokines

Chemokines

IDO inhibitors

Question 14

When are immune suppressant modulatory drugs used?

Answer 14

Used to treat hyper-immune syndromes

Question 15

What kinds of immune modulatory drugs are suppressants?

Answer 15

Steroid hormones

Interferon 1 (IFNb)

JAK inhibitors

Question 16

What are monoclonal antibodies produced by?

Answer 16

B cell hybridomas

B cells fused with myeloma cells

Question 17

When are cytolytic monoclonal antibodies used?

Answer 17

Used to eliminated cancerous cells

Question 18

When are blocking monoclonal antibodies?

Answer 18

Used to inhibit cell interactions and cell signalling

Question 19

What kinds of soluble fusion proteins exist?

Answer 19

CTLA4 blockade

Cytokine blockade

Question 20

What is the CTLA4 blockade?

Answer 20

Inhibits T cell responses by blocking B7/CD28 interactions between Antigen Presenting Cells

Question 21

What is the cytokine blockade?

Answer 21

Inhibit cytokine signalling to suppress autoimmune pathologies

Question 22

How to target monoclonal antibodies to tumour cells?

Answer 22

Identify antigens

Characterise antigen

Select epitopes for antigen binding

Engineer monoclonal antibodies for specificity and efficiency

Validate in preclinical models.

Question 23

How are antibodies used for cancer therapy by blocking signalling pathways?

Answer 23

Signal Transduction Inhibition

Downregulation of Growth Signals

Induction Apoptosis

Angiogenesis inhibition

Immune modulation

Question 24

How do antibodies downregulate the growth signals in cancer cells?

Answer 24

By blocking key receptors, such as receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), and preventing the activation of downstream signalling molecules.

Question 25

How do antibodies inhibit angiogenesis in cancer cells?

Answer 25

Antibodies targeting angiogenic factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or its receptors (VEGFRs), can disrupt tumour angiogenesis, leading to reduced blood supply to the tumour and inhibition of tumour growth.

Question 26

What kinds of immune checkpoints are blocked by CTLA4?

Answer 26

T cell suppression by binding to CTLA4

Question 27

What kinds of immune checkpoints are blocked by PD1/L?

Answer 27

T cell suppression by binding to PD-1 or PD-1 ligands

Question 28

What are T cell therapies?

Answer 28

Generate autologous tumour-specific T cell.

Question 29

When are Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) used?

Answer 29

used to engineer T cells to recognize tumour cells specifically and kill them.

Question 30

When are Regulatory T cell (Treg) therapies used?

Answer 30

Potential use to treat patients with hyper-immunity.

Question 31

Give 2 examples of T cell therapies?

Answer 31

Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) Regulatory T cell (Treg) therapies

Question 32

2 examples of dendritic cell (CD) therapies.

Answer 32

Provenge Regulatory DC therapies

Question 33

What is provenge?

Answer 33

To treat prostate cancer. Patient blood cells are used to generate mature DCs (APCs) that present prostate antigen (PAP) to T cells. Mature DCs are infused back into patients as a tumour-specific vaccine

Question 34

What are regulatory DC therapies?

Answer 34

Potential use to treat arthritis patients (in clinical trials). DCs are prepared from blood cells to select DCs with immune regulatory functions. Regulatory DCs are then infused into arthritic joints.