Call us
IMMUNOTHERAPY
Cancer immunotherapy
The immune system is a unique collection of many heterogeneous cells and substances, the main role of which is to protect the body from harmful effects both from the external environment and those already inside the body. The immune system, represented mainly by white blood cells, is the main barrier that inactivates harmful substances, microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, protozoa) and is responsible for our health status.
High immune defense is associated with high activity of the mediators involved in the immune system and contributes to our high resistance and resistance to various harmful effects, ranging from seasonal causes of flu, colds and banal infections to the risk of developing a neoplastic disease.
Modern medicine shows incredible progress in terms of its technological development and ability to create highly effective preparations to stimulate the immune system.
Biological therapy essentially includes medicines created on the basis of living systems. Immunotherapy is a method aimed at protecting exogenous and endogenous agents.
What is immunotherapy?
A better understanding of the methods and mechanisms by which immunotherapy exerts its effects requires knowledge of some of the basic elements of the immune system.
The main active units in the processes of the active immune system are white blood cells, which are of several main types, namely:
B-lymphocytes: are associated with the production of antibodies against specific antigens
T-lymphocytes: the cells that signal the immune system to activate and act by directly destroying "Foreign cells"
NK-cells: the abbreviation comes from natural killer cells or natural killer cells in literal translation, which are involved in the production of specific substances designed to bind to foreign invaders and their subsequent destruction
Macrophages are a type of white blood cell that engulf and digest foreign particles.
Immunotherapy uses the various components of the immune system, synthesized in the laboratory, selecting to perform precisely defined functions.
Immunotherapy aims to:
- Recognition of own from foreign cells
- Finding the foreign cells appropriately
- Stimulation of the immune system in relation to the destruction of foreign agents
- Interruption of the process of transformation of healthy cells into tumor cells
- Increasing the body's ability to restore damaged cells as a result of various adverse effects
Types of immunotherapy for cancer treatment
Specific immunotherapy it targets a certain type of cells or antigens, thus showing specificity in relation to a certain spectrum of diseases
Unspecific immunotherapy : it is aimed at the immune system and the body as a whole, it is intended to influence and counteract a large range of diseases
Depending on the character and nature of the agents used in immunotherapy, several main types are distinguished, such as the use of monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, cytokines, interferon's, interleukin's and others.
- Monoclonal antibodies
- Cytokines
- Vaccines: The well-known BCG vaccine, apart from prevention against tuberculosis, also finds a certain application in immunotherapy methods. When administered directly via a catheter into the bladder, the vaccine is effective against carcinoma in situ of the bladder.
- Oncolytic viral therapy Oncolytic viral therapy is based on the natural destructive ability against neoplastic cells of certain viruses. For example, a number of representatives affect neoplastic cells, affecting normal cells to a very weak extent.
Such viruses are, for example, reoviruses, the causative agent of Newcastle disease, the mumps virus (causing mumps). Other viruses such as adenoviruses, smallpox, and some others are modified in the laboratory in a way that results in the development of oncolytic properties.
The main challenge to oncolytic viral therapy is the risk of the immune system recognizing the particles as foreign and attacking them early in their administration, before the desired effect occurs.
English 
Bulgarian