Break through the tumor’s protective shield

Macrophages (grey) attacking tumor cells ( green ) © Manfred Ogris, Magdalena Billerhart, University of Vienna - A team at the Department for Pharmaceutical Sciences developed a therapy concept that could stop tumor growth. The immune system protects the body from cancer. To protect healthy body cells from its own immune system, they have developed a protective shield: the protein CD47 is a so called "don't eat me" signal, which tells the immune cells to stand back. Tumor cells exploit this CD47-based protection strategy for evading the immune system, by increasing presentation of CD47 on their cell surface. At the Department for Pharmaceutical Sciences, a team led by Manfred Ogris developed a therapy concept for programming the tumor cells to produce on their own a CD47-blocking and immune-activation fusion protein. This therapy approach could stop tumor growth. On phagocytic cells, also called macrophages, and other immune cells the ligand for CD47, namely SIRPa, can be found.