Using anti-depressants to improve immunotherapy for neuroblastoma

Every year, around 100 children are diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of childhood cancer that can grow anywhere in the torso. Currently, children can be treated with surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and stem cell transplants. However, immunotherapy is becoming an important tool in the fight against neuroblastoma. Compared to standard treatments, it can be less toxic and potentially more effective.

There are lots of different types of immunotherapy. For example, immunotherapy with the antibody GD2 has been a game changer in children with high-risk neuroblastoma, with around half of patients treated being stable or improving after five years. Another type of immunotherapy which engineers a patient’s own T cells to fight tumour cells has also shown great potential. However, immunotherapy doesn’t work for a lot of patients. This is because their immune system can make cells that stop the body’s normal ability to fight tumours.

In this project, Professor Arturo Sala and his team at Brunel University London want to find a way to improve immunotherapy for children with neuroblastoma. They believe that anti-depressants could be used to fight the immune cells which prevent the body’s anti-tumour response. In previous work using neuroblastoma models, Professor Sala’s team have shown that Prozac, a type of anti-depressant, can stop neuroblastoma from spreading to other places in the body. The team will be looking at how anti-depressants fight the immune cells and neuroblastoma cells to gather enough evidence to support their new treatment. Professor Sala hopes that, if their project goes well, anti-depressants could become standard practice when using immunotherapy to treat neuroblastoma.