Scientists at the University of Southampton have shown how stimulating a specific location on the surface of immune cells can be targeted with antibodies to help in their fight against cancer.
The new work concerns a receptor called CD40 found of the surface of certain immune cells which regulates their activity. The CD40 receptors are normally dispersed over the surface of resting immune cells, but must be concentrated and clustered into highly organised complexes in order to trigger an immune response against cancer. Scientists believe that very precise clustering is required to trigger an activation signal to ‘kick-start’ the immune cells as they fight diseases, including cancer.