Mark Farrugia, who has just completed a Master’s degree in biomedical science, was involved in research to better understand how T regulatory cells (Tregs) work, their direct involvement in cancer and ways to reduce or remove them from the cancer area so that the immune system would get back its full potential to fight the cancer.

These Tregs are cells naturally found in the human body and their role is to keep the immune system from being over-reactive by inhibiting its effectiveness. These cells are vital in preventing auto-immune diseases. What happens in cancer progression is that cancer cells recruit these Tregs and use them to make the immune system less active and effective against the cancer.

However, in some cases, the cancerous cells manage to evade the immune system and continue to grow, causing complications we are not aware of. They do so through various methods, one of them being to accumulate other cells, such as these so-called Tregs.

Farrugia’s research involved testing various immune stimulants (including tumour DNA itself) and observing their effect on Tregs collected from human blood and grown in the lab.

The effect of these conditions on Tregs was investigated by noticing any difference in the expression of the FOXP3 gene, a vital gene in the development of Tregs. This was done using a technique known as Real-Time PCR.

As with any scientific research, the path to obtain results was not an easy one, with many hurdles needing to be overcome along the way. Still, although the results obtained were not totally conclusive, they showed that there is a great potential in this line of study.

Tregs were shown to depend a lot on the conditions they are grown in. Therefore, there is potential in manipulating them in such a way as to reduce their effectiveness in a cancer environment.

This can thus lead to a potential immunotherapy whereby natural stimulants are used to prime the immune system into attacking the cancer itself.

Farrugia’s degree was carried out following a Strategic Educational Pathways Scholarship, part-financed by the EU – European Social Fund (ESF) under Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013, ‘Empowering People for More Jobs and a Better Quality of Life’.

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