A BIT of genetic tinkering can turn the immune system’s sentries against
invasion into crack troops, say researchers in the US.
Dendritic cells have an unrivalled ability to stimulate an immune response
and are already being tested as live “vaccines” in clinical trials. They pick up
foreign proteins and show them to other immune cells, along with various
“co-stimulatory” proteins. Killer T cells then seek out and destroy any invading
cells displaying these foreign proteins.
So by harvesting dendritic cells from patients and loading them with proteins
from tumours or viruses, researchers hope to develop immunotherapies for
diseases as different…
