Major study says malaria reinfection creates special immune cells Premium
The Hindu
Groundbreaking study reveals TR1 cells' crucial role in immune response to malaria, paving way for new vaccines and drugs.
In a groundbreaking discovery that could reshape our understanding of the immune system and pave the way for revolutionary new vaccines and drugs, scientists have characterised a previously less-understood immune cell with powerful regulatory functions.
They have found that immune cells called TR1 cells play a dominant role in mounting an immune response to malaria. The implications of the study, published in the journal Science Immunologyon April 25, are far-reaching, potentially opening new pathways to conquer not only malaria but many other ‘difficult’ infections for which we currently lack effective vaccines.
The human immune system has a complex multi-layered defence against infections. Its arsenal of weapons includes numerous components and subcomponents with precisely defined tasks to execute. They must also coordinate with each other to ensure the response is effective and minimises self-harm.
When an infectious agent breaches the first layers of defence (skin and mucosae), specialised arms of the immune system respond. The first among them is innate immunity: it acts against any threat non-specifically, while activating other arms of the system, which are collectively called adaptive immunity.
In addition to acting against a threat, adaptive immunity stores a record of the molecular signature of the threat, or antigen, with help from the memory cells. Every antigen has specific memory cells. When they recognise an antigen they’ve encountered before, they accelerate and enhance the immune response.
This adaptive immunity has two important subcomponents. Antibody-mediated humoral immunity is mediated chiefly by B-cells while cell-mediated immunity involves the T-cells.
The new study, led by Jason Nideffer of Stanford University, focused on a subtype of T-cells called CD4+ cells. They are also called helper cells because they help activate B-cells, T-cells, and immune cells like macrophages during an immune response.
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