If you're interested in cancer research, check out the journal article written by Dave Binder!! I will be honest, I don't understand much (if anything) of this, but wanted to share it on my blog because it's amazing research that will impact the ongoing battle against cancer.
http://cancerimmunolres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2013/06/25/2326-6066.CIR-13-0058.full.pdf+html
A BIG thank you to Dave and others out there working hard every day to develop innovative treatments for this disease.
Just a brief summary: PD-L1 (a protein on a cell) prevents a T cell from working properly, therefore, the T cell cannot attack and kill the cancer cell. This paper found that if there is a mix of a bacteria and antigen (in this case a cancer protein) in a vaccine it creates an environment that tells the immune system: hey, inflammation going on, I need help, bring in the T cells. T cells start working again and tumor shrinks. Even though this study is only is mice, it is very promising. So good article choice.
ReplyDelete