USC Wins $3.2 Million NIH Grant to Probe Thymulin's Role in Cancer Immunity
Updated
Updated · BIOENGINEER.ORG · Aug 4
USC Wins $3.2 Million NIH Grant to Probe Thymulin's Role in Cancer Immunity
1 articles · Updated · BIOENGINEER.ORG · Aug 4
Summary
$3.2 million from the NIH will fund a five-year USC project testing how the hormone thymulin links age-related inflammation to weaker cancer immunity and poorer immunotherapy response.
Nature Communications findings behind the grant showed restoring thymulin in older mice reduced chronic inflammation, improved survival and made immunotherapy more effective.
USC researchers will trace thymulin's molecular signaling in aged mice and human immune cells, then test whether it can reshape tumor microenvironments in breast cancer and melanoma.
Metastasis is a key target: the team will examine whether thymulin can prevent secondary tumors or slow established metastatic growth in older mouse models.
The work remains preclinical, but USC sees thymulin as a potential add-on to PD-1 or PD-L1 checkpoint drugs for older patients, whose cancers often respond differently than those in younger people.