Israeli Scientists Achieve Breakthrough in Next-Gen Cancer Treatments

A groundbreaking discovery by scientists from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with international partners, could revolutionize cancer treatment by reprogramming the immune system’s frontline soldiers T cells to fight tumors more effectively.

The study, published in Nature Communications, reveals that disabling a mitochondrial protein known as Ant2 enhances T cells’ energy production, making them stronger, faster, and more resilient against cancer cells.

“By disabling Ant2, we triggered a complete shift in how T cells produce and use energy,” said Prof. Michael Berger of Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine, who co-led the research with PhD student Omri Yosef. “This reprogramming made them significantly better at recognizing and killing cancer cells.”

T cells are white blood cells critical to the body’s defense against infections and cancer. The research team which also included Prof. Magdalena Huber of Philipps University of Marburg and Prof. Eyal Gottlieb of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center focused on the mitochondria, the cell’s energy hub. By targeting Ant2, they interrupted a specific metabolic pathway, forcing T cells to adapt and perform more aggressively.

“This work highlights how deeply interconnected metabolism and immunity truly are,” Prof. Berger noted. “By learning how to control the power source of our immune cells, we may be able to unlock therapies that are both more natural and more effective.”

Unlike traditional cancer treatments that broadly activate the immune system or require complex genetic engineering, this strategy improves T cell performance through internal metabolic adjustments.

“Perhaps most exciting is the fact that we can induce this change with drugs,” Yosef said. “That opens the door to clinical applications that are much more accessible.”

Experimental results from mouse models showed striking reductions in tumor size when treated with metabolically reprogrammed T cells compared to standard approaches.

Current CAR-T therapies where a patient’s T cells are genetically modified to attack cancer often face problems such as cell exhaustion or short-lived effectiveness. Ant2 inhibition could address these limitations, creating T cells that are both longer-lasting and more potent in hostile tumor environments.

Because this technique fine-tunes the body’s own immune cells rather than relying on toxic chemotherapies, it could also reduce the severe side effects associated with conventional cancer treatments.

“We’re not just helping the immune system aim we’re giving it better tools to win the fight,” Berger concluded.

This discovery may pave the way for a new generation of cancer therapies that are not only more effective but also safer and easier to administer.

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