Pukyong National University

'Notice' 'Developed of a complex material' that activates immune cells by selecting only cancer cells
Research Achievements of Prof. Kwak Min-Seok of PKNU and Prof. Jin Jun-oh of Yeungnam University

△ The image of anti-cancer effect confirmed by 'INA'.

Korean researchers are attracting attention by developing complex materials that can activate immune cells by selecting only cancer cells.

Professor Kwak Min-seok (Department of Chemistry) and Prof. Jin Jun-oh (Department of Biomedical Engineering), Yeungnam University One nucleic acid complex called INA (Immunotherapeutic nucleic acid).

Recently, studies on cancer treatment using the body's immune activity have been actively conducted, but there are limitations associated with side effects such as damage of normal cells such as inflammation.

The team used protein fragments (antigenic peptides) with characteristic sequences found in cancer cells to learn to accurately recognize cancer cells, and activated immune cells with DNA fragments (CpG sequences) to stimulate receptors on immune cells.

As a result of administering the synthesized compound 'INA' to a mouse model with melanoma, immune cells (T cells) that selectively respond to melanoma-specific protein fragments proliferate and inflammatory protein (Cytokine), which means immune activity. It has been shown to inhibit the growth of melanoma and epithelial cell carcinoma, such as confirming the secretion.

'INA' is expected to be used for the development of vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases as well as for the manufacture of vaccines for cancer prevention, such as securing biocompatibility by using DNA fragments and lipid chains present in vivo.

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Research Foundation's Future Materials Discovery Project and Young Researcher Support Project. In addition to the corresponding authors, Professor Kwak and Professor Jin, the first author, Dr. Kim Hae-ju (Pukyong National University), Dr. Heo Yang-hoon (Korea Basic Science Institute), and Andreas Hermann (Germany, Aachen Institute of Technology) participated.

The research paper, Soft Matter DNA Nanoparticles Hybridized with CpG Motifs and Peptide Nucleic Acids Enable Immunological Treatment of Cancer (Journal of Controlled Release, was published October 19 in the Journal of Controlled Release, an international journal of pharmacy. <Pukyong Today>