THE WEEK · JULY 29, 2018 35HEALTHINTERVIEW/ Dr Joseph Wu, director, Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford UniversityR
esearchers at Stan-
ford University used
pluripotent stem cells
(iPSCs) to create a
vaccine that makes mice im-
mune to breast, lung and skin
cancer. Pluripotent stem cells are
master cells that can propagate
indefi nitely, and give rise to ev-
ery other cell type in the body.
Since iPSCs can be derived di-
rectly from adult tissues, they
can be matched to patients. This
means that individuals could
have their own pluripotent stem
cell line.
It turns out that iPSCs and
cancer cells share various an-
tigens or proteins on their sur-
faces. So, the Stanford team de-
cided to see if iPSCs could serve
as vaccine against cancer. If the
immune system is exposed to iP-
SCs, would it be primed to rec-
ognise and attack tumour cells
that arise later because of their
similarities? They found that the
concept worked, at least in lab
mice.
Dr Joseph Wu, director of
Stanford’s Cardiovascular In-
stitute, is the senior author of
the study, which was published
online in Cell Stem Cell on Feb-
ruary 15. Former postdoctoraliPSC-based vaccine
could prevent cancer
BY PRIYA MENON scholar Nigel Kooreman, MD,
is the lead author. Dr Wu ex-
plains the research and results:
Your research suggests that it
may be possible to vaccinate an
individual with his or her own
iPSCs. This is a very exciting
time for cancer research.
You are right. It is exciting
that we have a surrogate cell
that can provide the immune
system with a large amount
of cancer-related antigens. As
a vaccine, this therapy could
potentially prevent cancers, or
delay their onset.
What are iPSCs? And how do
they work as cancer vaccine?
iPSCs are cells that are created
by reprogramming the nucleusof an adult cell—like skin cell
and blood cell—to express
similar genes as embryonic stem
cells. By doing so, the cell actu-
ally transforms into a cell that is
similar to embryonic stem cells,
and that [cell] can be turned into
a large number of cells in the hu-
man body—like heart muscle
cells, nerve cells, pancreatic cells
and liver cells. The main use of
these cells is therefore in regen-
erative medicine, to see if we can
use them in the future to restore
diseased tissue in patients.
Our lab has been working with
embryonic stem cells (ESCs)
and iPSCs for years. In 2011,
we published on the oncogenic
potential of ESCs, showing
overlap in oncogene expression
of pluripotent cells with cancer
cells; and in 2014, on the im-
munogenic properties of iPSCs.
Because of our extensive experi-
ence with ESCs and iPSCs, we
hypothesised that we could use
iPSCs as a surrogate cell line to
boost the immune system in tar-
geting cancer.
What is the clinical potential of
this approach?
One implication of the vaccine
is as a prophylactic treatment,
where you would vaccinate
high-risk patients at a certain
age, say 70, when they become
more vulnerable to developing