Researchers have discovered that inhaling supplemental oxygen, containing 40 to 60 percent oxygen compared to the usual 21 percent in air, can help in weakening immunosuppression and waking up anti-tumor cells.
The approach can dramatically improve survival rates for patients with cancer, a disease that claims 8 million lives every year.
In a study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Michail Sitkovsky and colleagues showed that supplemental oxygenation has the ability to cut back on adenosine accumulation spurred by oxygen deprivation, which usually occurs in tumor sites, and reduce instances of immunosuppression. With natural killer cells and anti-tumor T lymphocytes unleashed, tumors are expected to shrink and immunity against cancer improved.
Sitkovsky explained that breathing supplemental oxygen can aid in treating cancer because it opens up access to tumors and awakens anti-tumor cells already on site. However, if there are no anti-tumor cells present, the influx of supplemental oxygen will have no effect.
The Northeastern University professor made an important immunology discovery in the early 2000s, finding a surface receptor on immune cells, called A2A adenosine receptor, responsible for keeping T cells from attacking tumors and rendering killer cells from doing damage once they get inside the tumor by "putting them to sleep." Sitkovsky and colleagues' current study builds upon the function of the A2A adenosine receptor, showing that supplemental oxygenation disrupts this function to allow killer cells to do their work and fight cancer tumors.
"Indeed, it is promising that our method could be implemented relatively quickly by testing in clinical trials the effects of oxygenation in combination with different types of already existing immunotherapies of cancer," said Sitkovsky.
He also noted that the benefits of supplemental oxygen may be improved by using a synthetic agent he refers to as "supercaffeine." The drug works the way supplemental oxygen does, waking up killer cells so they can continue attacking the cancer tumor. Sitkovsky is currently working with Graham Jones, also from Northeastern University, to develop a next-generation version of the drug.
The study was the result of collaboration between researchers and doctors from various disciplines and institutions, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Brigham and Women's Hospital, the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Stephen Hatfield, Akio Ohta, Jorgen Kjaergaard, Eckhard Podack, Dmitriy Lukashev, Barry Karger, Taylor Schreiber, Edwin Jackson, Bryan Belikoff, Jeffrey Kutok, Scott Rodig, Robert Abbott, Molly Thayer, Shalini Sethumadhavan, Ryan Cannici, Phaethon Philbrook and Kami Ko also participated in the study.
Photo: Salim Fadhley | Flickr
