Improving the body's ability to fight cancer and intruders

IMAGE: Three T cells detect and surround a cancer cell. view more

Credit: National Institutes of Health

The human body’s immune system is like a vast team of special agents. Certain cells called T cells each individually specialize in recognizing a particular intruder, such as the influenza virus or salmonella. Determining a given T cell’s target is a critical step in designing personalized treatments for cancers and developing vaccines. Now, a team of Caltech scientists has developed two new methods for rapidly determining T cell targets.

The work was done in the laboratory of David Baltimore, Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology and president emeritus. Two papers describing the research appear in the January 28 issue of the journal Nature Methods.

A cell that is infected with a pathogen–for example, an influenza virus–will display bits of the invader’s genetic material on the cell surface, like waving a red flag to indicate what is going on inside the cell. These “flags,” called antigens, are presented on proteins on the cell surface, called MHCs (major histocompatibility complexes). Each T cell is specialized to recognize a different antigen. When a T cell finds a cell displaying its target antigen on an MHC

Improving the Body's Ability to Fight Cancer and Intruders