果冻影院

In an article published in Science Immunology, Professor Lucy Walker鈥檚 team have discovered which type of immune cell is controlled by the important regulatory molecule CTLA-4.

CTLA-4 is a critical molecule for regulating immune responses. Antibodies to block CTLA-4 function are used in cancer immunotherapy to increase immune responses against tumours. It was the first immune 鈥渃heckpoint鈥� to be identified.

Immune cells use CTLA-4 to regulate the behaviour of other immune cells 鈥� but until now we didn鈥檛 know the identity of these cells.

We have now shown that a particular type of immune cell, a subset of dendritic cells, is the target for CTLA4鈥檚 immunoregulatory activity.

Professor Walker said: 鈥淭his discovery gives us a new level of understanding about how this important molecule, CTLA-4, regulates the immune system. CTLA-4 is working inside us all the time to prevent us getting autoimmune diseases, so it鈥檚 a key molecule to understand.聽 It鈥檚 also targeted by immunotherapy drugs so the more detail we have on how it works, the better we can deploy these drugs.鈥�

Links

• Read the paper: (Science Immunology)
• Profile: Professor Lucy Walker

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