Scientists decode the 'language' of immune cells -- Science & Technology -- Sott.net

© Brooks Taylor/UCLA
In this image from a microscopy video, scientists “listen” to macrophages as they responded to an immune threat. UCLA life
scientists have identified six "words" that specific immune cells use to call up immune defense genes — an important step toward understanding the language the body uses to marshal responses to threats.
In addition, they discovered that the incorrect use of two of these words can activate the wrong genes, resulting in the autoimmune disease known as Sjögren's syndrome. The research, conducted in mice, is published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Immunity (
Cell Press).
"Cells have evolved an immune response code, or language," said senior author Alexander Hoffmann, the Thomas M. Asher Professor of Microbiology and director of the Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences at UCLA. "We have identified some words in that language, and we know these words are important because of what happens when they are misused. Now we need to understand the meaning of the words, and we are making rapid progress. It's as exciting as when archaeologists discovered the Rosetta stone and could begin to read Egyptian hieroglyphs."

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