Immunotherapy side effects

Understanding the damaging effects of immunotherapy on the liver

Ye Htun Oo is a Professor of Autoimmune Liver Diseases and Translational Hepatology at the University of Birmingham.

Immunotherapy has revolutionised cancer treatment, by taking the breaks off the immune system and activating it to target and kill cancer cells. However, this can also commonly lead to unwanted immune system activation in other parts of the body, such as the liver, leading to serious liver damage.

To combat this problem, Ye and his team - Dr Amber Bozward (STEM for Britain award recipient), Dr Kayani Kayani (MRC CRTF) and Professor Gary Middleton - will use spatial transcriptomics to develop a better understanding of how this liver damage occurs, uncovering biomarkers and potential targets to treat it. They will also be examining the possibility of using regulatory T-cells, a part of the immune regulation, as a potential therapy to prevent this liver damage from occurring.