How weightlessness and extreme cold can reshape the human immune system
In short: In orbit, astronauts' immune cells face a silent crisis. By studying how microgravity disrupts these vital defenders, scientists are uncovering ways to manipulate immune responses. This research, combined with techniques like cryosurgery, could help transform 'cold' tumor environments into 'hot' ones to better fight cancer.
During the 2006 Astrolab mission, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter conducted the Leukin experiment on the International Space Station. The study examined how human immune cells adapt to weightlessness by comparing cells floating in microgravity to those kept in a centrifuge to simulate gravity. Researchers discovered that living in space weakens an astronaut's immune system because a specific transmitter within the immune cells stops functioning in weightlessness.
To capture these biological shifts, cells were injected with a fixative to create a snapshot of their activity before being stored in ESA's Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for Earth-based analysis. These findings offer vital clues for tackling diseases on Earth before symptoms even appear.
On Earth, researchers are exploring similar manipulations of the immune environment to fight cancer. While immunotherapy has seen success with hematological malignancies, treating solid tumors remains difficult because the tumor microenvironment is often 'immunologically cold,' containing deactivated or compromised immune cells. One emerging strategy involves cryosurgery—using extreme cold to cause ice formation and frostbite within a tumor.
This process creates a 'frozen iceball' that can be monitored via medical ultrasonography. Beyond killing cancer cells through cryoinjury, the thawing process allows for a temporary reperfusion of blood to the area, which may help immune cells infiltrate the tumor. By combining cryosurgery with cold-responsive nanotechnology, scientists aim to transform these 'cold' environments into 'hot' ones, stimulating dendritic cells and T lymphocytes to execute an anti-tumor response.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Attacking and freezing human immune cells
- Also: In-situ cryo-immune engineering of tumor microenvironment with cold-responsive nanotechnology for cancer immunotherapy - Nature Communications
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