Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have uncovered an important process in how our immune system detects signs of disease and activates a protective response. This understanding could improve efforts to find new and effective immunotherapy treatments for diseases like cancer.
In their study, published in Nature Immunology, the scientists found a mechanism by which specific immune cells, called dendritic cells, relay signals of disease to surrounding T-cells.
it’s exciting to finally have evidence of a specific receptor which signals for phagosomes to burst.
Caetano Reis e Sousa
If a cell becomes cancerous or infected with a virus, the proteins inside it change to reflect this. Dendritic cells need to present these proteins to T cells to initiate an immune response. But how can they do this if the proteins are inside another cell? It turns out dendritic cells that come across a diseased cell that is dying from infection or cancer engulf bits of the dead cell and hold those bits inside themselves, within pockets called phagosomes.
crick.ac.uk/news/2020-12-21...
Nature Immunology. Research Paper:
