Houston: A team of cancer research scientists has discovered a new subset of T cells that could potentially have positive effects on patients undergoing T-cell therapy.
T-cell-based immunotherapy is effective against and often eradicates cancer. The method activates the patient’s immune system and engineers the patient’s own T cells to recognize, attack and kill cancer cells. In this way, the body’s own T cells become living drugs.
While T-cell immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, much remains to be understood. Unfortunately, these therapies are not effective in all patients, so a better understanding of the properties of engineered T cells is essential to improve clinical responses.
Lead study author Ali Rizwan, from the University of Houston, said the results showed that a subset of T cells called CD8-fit T cells are capable of rapid movement and serial killing.
To discover the CD8-fit cells, the team used the TIMING (time-lapse imaging microscopy in nanowell grids) method to visualize the interaction between T cells and cancer cells.
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