Finance News Weekly: International Immunology Day, which is held on April 29, highlights diseases linked to the different components of the immune system and the advances made in this area. What inventory do you make of it? Professor Abdallah Badou: Well you know, I like to say that we are in a crucial period of our time. These post-covid years have allowed the general public to be more or less familiar with the role of the system
immune system. I think that this facilitates the enormous challenge of raising awareness and popularizing the wide range of pathologies linked to the dysfunction of this system, or to inappropriate hyperactivation (e.g. autoimmune diseases) or to low activation (case of primary immune deficiencies). It is clear today that this system also fails in the case of several types of cancer. Thus, the latest translational and clinical research explores the therapeutic use of the immune system
in several pathologies. This approach is called “immunotherapy.” The latter includes, among other things, the use of antibodies (inhibitors or activators), vaccines, nanovaccines based on nanomaterial technology, T cell therapies, in particular with chimeric antigen receptor “CAR T cells”, and cells induced pluripotent strains “iPSCs” promoting immunotolerance that can be used in autoimmune diseases. In particular, the era of cancer immunotherapy is only just beginning.
FNH: You are a professor of immunology and molecular biology, and you direct a research laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Casablanca. Can you tell us about the work you do with your team and the pathologies you target in your cutting-edge research? Pr AB: Immunology is a vast field of research, and I must admit it is quite fascinating. Our research structure is made up of teacher-researchers, doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. Our work aims to understand and highlight the interaction between immune cells and cancer cells. If we look in a broader sense, normal cells, after having undergone profound genetic and mutational rearrangements, acquire a “non-self” phenotype and should logically be eliminated efficiently by immune cells, in particular by cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes in our body. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. We intervene, so to speak, in order to reveal the potential underlying mechanisms of this inability of T cells to destroy cancer cells. We are looking more specifically at breast cancer, glioma (which is a type of brain cancer), colorectal cancer and lung cancer. For us, it is a question of highlighting molecules called “immune checkpoints” found on cancer cells and used by them.
to “slow down” their destruction and attenuate the activity of T lymphocytes towards them. Our vision is also much broader, to the extent that we intervene in vitro by offering natural molecules that can bind to these checkpoints and thus prevent attachment to their receptor generally found on T cells. We thus prevent this way inhibiting T cells and giving them full power to attack cancer cells. This approach is called immunotherapy and is particularly promising, especially for very advanced stages of melanoma, lung cancer and breast cancer. However, not all patients respond to this treatment (20 to 40% depending on the cancer), which is also very expensive (amounting to $350,000). Thus, one of the current challenges is to be able to anticipate an effective response in the patient to immunotherapy treatment based on a set of factors, such as the expression rate of certain markers linked to the immune response. In the very near future, I think that we will be better able to partially respond to this problem thanks to our artificial intelligence project combining our experimental results obtained so far and artificial intelligence (Machine Learning). FNH: Technological advances, particularly in biotechnology, have enabled optimal results, particularly in the treatment of cancers. Can you tell us more? Professor AB: Indeed. As you mentioned, biotechnology in our era seems essential when we want to answer certain questions, particularly for the treatment of cancers. I find it quite wonderful to see to what extent the concept of cancer has evolved over recent years, moving from a massive entity of tumor cells to a microenvironment specific to each individual, and governed by a multitude of interactions in its breast. Biotechnology has made it possible to improve the management of cancers by focusing treatment on a personalized and targeted approach. Take the case of breast cancer, for example, where the administration of chemo to HER2+ patients was punished by serious side effects, with a high chance of recurrence. Herceptin, an anti-HER-2 monoclonal antibody (generated by biotechnology), makes it possible to directly attack the HER-2 protein and reduce the percentage of recurrence by 50%, and the risk of death by 33%. The same is true for TNBC (triple negative breast cancer), one of the most aggressive subtypes of breast cancer, which can now be treated by immunotherapy by targeting the PD-L1 molecule expressed on tumor cells. . But I think that one of the wonders of this technology can especially be seen in the treatment of serious blood cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemia. The possibility of reconfiguring patient T cells into CAR-T cells to pit them against specific antigens associated with tumor progression is a spectacular advance. In view of the numerous genetic and molecular changes that the cancer cell makes, I think that biotechnology will always place itself a step above in order to specifically target the antigens associated with these changes and thus allow effective treatment of cancers. We should nevertheless look into the questions of subsidizing treatments, because it must be admitted that the price of these technologies is not given. FNH: Why is it so important today to invest in research and development in this area? Professor AB: I like this question because each time I can provide a fairly convincing answer, both economically, scientifically and in terms of public health. Economically, in 2021, it has been reported that the U.S. biotechnology sector is a crucial economic driver, providing approximately 2.1 million jobs and generating approximately $2.9 million for the economy. You see, investing in research means giving players in this field the means to be able to put their knowledge at the service of the general interest, particularly economically, through a participatory and interdisciplinary approach. Research promotes innovation, encourages the discovery of new ideas, technologies and methods. Above all, research stimulates competitiveness. In turn, the more investment we have in the field of biotechnology, the more new methods, services and treatments will be able to emerge, thus leaving a wide range of choices for patients and patients with limited budgets. As I mentioned earlier, this could be seen during the Covid period, where Morocco put specific and very sensitive rapid screening kits on the market, and which at the same time were very competitive in price compared to to those imported. This has considerably improved the diagnosis and treatment of patients, what’s more at lower costs. Another essential aspect is the identification of biomarkers predictive of therapeutic response, allowing more precise patient selection. By adapting treatments to the specific needs of Moroccan and possibly African patients through studies on the local and continental population, research makes therapies more personalized, and therefore more effective. In a word, I would say that research contributes to preserving the scientific and health sovereignty of a country. It strengthens its economy and improves the standard of living of its inhabitants.
