Anirudh Saravanan
Grade 11
The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the efficiency and stability of introducing natural killer (NK) cells in the existing immunotherapy for melanoma cancer known as LAG-3 CD223. NK cells are already in use for HIV immunotherapy, however, are not available in current cancer treatments. Including NK cells can allow the body to develop a natural means to attack the cancer cells and use additional immune responses to defend the body. The procedure started by taking the data from existing research done on the LAG-3 checkpoint and the logistics of immunotherapy at this location. The independent variable was the presence or absence of NK cells and the variable being tested was the change in success rate of the immunotherapy. The melanoma treatment which lacks the use of NK cells was compared to HIV immunotherapy which uses NK cells. The change in success rate allows for the true effect of the NK cells in immunotherapy to be analyzed. Overall, the use of NK cells in LAG-3 CD223 demonstrated positive performance and rejection of the null hypothesis based on the statistical significance of the one-way ANOVA test (p<0.0001). The statistical tests also supported the stability of NK cells when being put into an environment to attack cancer cells. Not only were the cells able to be implemented into the immune systems for treatment, the NK cells were also able to increase efficiency by a statistically significant amount, rejecting the null hypothesis.
Mentors:
- Mrs. Allison Hennings – IMSA/RISE Instructor,
- Dr. Munirathinam Gnanasekaran (Ph.D.) – University of Chicago at Illinois, Biomedical Science
- Dr. Anandaraman Veerapathran (Ph.D.) – Obsidian Biotherapeutics
- Dr. Krithika Kodumundi (Ph.D.) – Iovance Biotherapeutics
