Checkpoint immunotherapy utilizing PD-1 blockade has become the standard of care for metastatic melanoma. While this treatment is effective in 40% of patients, the other 60% develop resistance, leading to tumor regrowth. A multidisciplinary research team led by the University of California, Irvine has identified a new strategy that could enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of this therapy by targeting the communication between immune cells within the tumor.
The pandemic offered the first-ever opportunity for scientists to study how the immune system responds to a new threat, in real time, in the global population.
<p>New research opens the door to developing vaccines or therapies to increase T cell numbers and treat many more types of cancer than currently thought possible.</p>
<p>Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have uncovered important clues to how human T cells combat <em>Mycobacterium tuberculosis,</em> the bacterium that causes TB.</p>