It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s SUPER cell!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Defense wins games…and life! The tortoise has a shell. The octopus changes color. And our bodies have the mighty immune system. But…How does it know how to target cancerous cells and not healthy ones? And can we boost that power?
Enter Garry Dolton and his team from Cardiff University.
Researchers began by analyzing disease-fighting cells from SIX late-stage cancer survivors. They noticed something different in the cells of the patients who had immune cell therapy.
They discovered cells that can detect THREE cancer types at once! With each cell detected, the T cell is activated up to SEVEN times as strongly! Talk about a jack of all trades!
These cells may be used as cancer therapy for other cancer patients. This can provide them with an advantage that they wouldn’t have had.
That’s not only a superhero of a cell, but a cell of the century!
Reference: Dolton, G., Rius, C., Wall, A., Szomolay, B., Bianchi, V., Galloway, S. a. E., Hasan, M. F., Morin, T., Caillaud, M. E., Thomas, H., Theaker, S. M., Tan, L. R., Fuller, A., Topley, K., Legut, M., Attaf, M., Hopkins, J. R., Behiry, E. M., Zabkiewicz, J., . . . Sewell, A. K. (2023). Targeting of multiple tumor-associated antigens by individual T cell receptors during successful cancer immunotherapy. Cell, 186(16), 3333-3349.e27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.06.020