A new way to stimulate the immune system and fight infection
Date: 27.1.2012
A study carried out by Eric Vivier and Sophie Ugolini at the Marseille-Luminy Centre for Immunology has just reveal a gene in mice which, when mutated, can stimulate the immune system to help fight against tumors and viral infections. Whilst this gene was known to activate one of the body's first lines of defense (Natural Killer, or 'NK' cells), paradoxically, when deactivated it makes these NK cells hypersensitive to the warning signals sent out by diseased cells.
These new data are an essential step towards understanding the operation of these key cells in the immune system, and they could provide a new therapeutic approach to fighting infection. They also suggest that the operation of NK cells must be precisely regulated to guarantee an optimum immune reaction. Details of this work are published in the 20 January 2012 issue of the journal Science.
