By altering a salmonella bacterium and rigging it to produce a protein found predominantly in cancer cells, scientists have devised an experimental cancer vaccine.
Researchers created the vaccine by making a nonvirulent form of Salmonella typhimurium and adding a gene for the tumor-cell protein NY-ESO-1. When mingled with human white blood cells in a lab dish, the vaccine elicited the formation of an army of immune T cells that recognize and target cells producing NY-ESO-1.
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