elife: A new mechanism for T-cells to fight cancer.

Oct 15, 2020 /--- A new study published in the journal eLife shows that when T cells in the immune system find and identify targets, they release chemicals to attract more T cells and then gather to help suppress the threat.
discovery of this bee population behavior, as well as the chemical lures used by immune cells to lead bees to tumors, could one day help scientists develop new cancer treatments that boost the immune system.
is especially important for solid tumors.
so far, solid tumors have responded less to current immunotherapy than blood cancers. "Scientists used to think that T cells that kill cancer identify tumors by randomly searching for or following chemical traces produced by other intermediate immune cells," said lead author Jorge Luis Galeano Niño of
.pixabay.com.
we want to investigate this further to see if it's correct or if T-cells are targeting tumors through another mechanism.
team used 3-D tumor models grown in laboratory and mouse models to show that cancer-killing T cells can reside in tumor cells independently of intermediate immune cells.
when T cells detect and identify tumors, they release chemical signals and then attract more T cells to perceive signals through a subject called CCR5, which causes swarm reactions.
The cells coordinate their migration processes, reminiscent of the swarms of bees observed in certain insects and another group of immune cells called neutral granulocytes, which help the body respond to injuries and pathogens," said
Galeano Niño.
" After using computer models to confirm the results, the team genetically engineered human cells, called chisellular antigens (CAR)-T cells, and demonstrated that they also flocked to 3-D glioblastoma tumors that grew in the lab.
car-T cells are currently being used to treat certain types of blood cancer.
but the new findings suggest it is also possible to train these cells to attack solid tumors.
" Although this is a basic study, at an early stage, car-T cells could be targeted at solid tumors in the future using bee swarm mechanisms, which could lead to enhanced immunotherapy to more effectively immerse and destroy these types of tumors, and it is also important to determine whether the population mechanism is beneficial for mitigating autoimmune conditions or overheated T-cell responses associated with viral infections after transplantation.
" (Bioon.com) Source: Cancer-killing T cells 'swarm' to tumors, attracting others to the original source: Jorge Luis Galeano Niño et al, Cytoxic T Cells swarm by homotypic chemokine signalling, eLife (2020). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.56554.