2023-11-29 01:38:00
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) — Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have discovered new details regarding how the immune system can recognize and kill cancer cells, unlocking potential new strategies to treat aggressive cancers.
Researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered that certain immune cells can still fight cancer even when the cancer cells lack an important protein that the immune system relies on to hunt them down, according to a university release published Tuesday.
The team found that the absence of the crucial B2M protein appears to activate an alternative immune response involving natural killer (TN) cells and CD4+ T cells in animal studies and patient tumor biopsies.
According to the researchers, these results indicate a potential backup mechanism for the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.
“The unexpected critical role of TN and T-CD4+ cells might be another way for the immune system to fight certain types of tumors with the help of drugs that block immune checkpoints,” said Mildred Galvez of the David Geffen School of Medicine. Medicine at UCLA-Charles R. Drew Medical Education Program, and co-first author of the study. END
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