July 6, 2018, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Like a mentor helping medical students choose between specialties, a protein complex helps shape the destiny of developing T cells, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have reported. The research appears today in the journal Science Immunology and adds to growing evidence of the critical role cell metabolism plays in the immune system. Corresponding author Hongbo...
Tag: <span>T-cells</span>
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Your immune system holds the line against repeat invaders, thanks to this molecule
JUPITER, FL–April 17, 2018–Memory T cells are a critical element of our immune system’s historical archive. To prevent repeat infections, these cells retain a record of germs they’ve fought before. IMAGE: (THE RESEARCHERS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) ADAM GETZLER, HUITIAN DIAO, DAPENG WANG AND MATTHEW PIPKIN LED THE STUDY ON THE FLORIDA CAMPUS OF THE SCRIPPS...
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New receptor genes turn T-cells into powerful liver cancer foes
CREDIT: PHIL JONES, SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER, AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY AUGUSTA, Ga. (April 3, 2018) – Mouse genes that make human T cells powerful at fighting liver cancer could one day help patients do the same, scientists report. Georgia Cancer Center scientists exposed mice genetically manipulated to respond to human antigens to a common antigen found in human...
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Risk of type 1 diabetes climbs when one population of T cells falls
BOSTON – (April 5, 2018) – In autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, some of the immune system’s T cells mistakenly attack the body’s own cells, while protective T regulatory cells try to defend against that attack. Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have shown in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes that animals...
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Efficient genetic modification of immune cells
A new method enables genes in living T-cells in mice to be modified quickly and efficiently. It makes use of plasmids, a tried-and-tested method of genetic engineering. Researchers from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel reported these findings in the Journal of Immunology. Molecular biological methods such as CRISPR-Cas9...
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Checkpoint inhibitors fire up different types of T cells to attack tumors
Anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 immunotherapies expand distinct immune infiltrates against cancer Cancer immunotherapies that block two different checkpoints on T cells launch immune attacks on cancer by expanding distinct types of T cell that infiltrate tumors, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal Cell. “The mechanisms these two therapies use mostly...
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Molecule identified that helps give resident T cells in the skin their anti-cancer punch
Mouse showing signs of vitiligo. Photograph courtesy of Medical University of South Carolina cancer immunologist Dr. Chrystal M. Paulos and Dartmouth’s Dr. Mary Jo Turk. The molecule CD103 is key to the long-term residence of T cells in the skin and to their anti-tumor function, report a team of researchers at the Medical University...
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Savior of T-cells may be enemy of liver immune cells
With the signaling molecule caspase-1, OX40 proteins induce inflammatory cell death inside the liver blood vessel (red dots inside white section in the middle) and cause damage to liver cells (hepatocytes), altering their radiant structure. Researchers at Houston Methodist demonstrated that a surface protein called OX40, responsible for keeping one type of immune system...