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Walker lab make important immune system regulator discovery

5 June 2019

Researchers at the 最准的六合彩论坛 Institute of Immunity and Transplantation (IIT) have made an important discovery about how a natural regulator of the immune system works.

Crystal structure of CTLA4

In an article published in Science Immunology, Professor Lucy Walker鈥檚 team have discovered which type of immune cell is controlled by the important regulatory molecule CTLA-4.

CTLA-4 is a critical molecule for regulating immune responses. Antibodies to block CTLA-4 function are used in cancer immunotherapy to increase immune responses against tumours. It was the first immune 鈥渃heckpoint鈥 to be identified.

Immune cells use CTLA-4 to regulate the behaviour of other immune cells 鈥 but until now we didn鈥檛 know the identity of these cells.

We have now shown that a particular type of immune cell, a subset of dendritic cells, is the target for CTLA4鈥檚 immunoregulatory activity.

Professor Walker said: 鈥淭his discovery gives us a new level of understanding about how this important molecule, CTLA-4, regulates the immune system. CTLA-4 is working inside us all the time to prevent us getting autoimmune diseases, so it鈥檚 a key molecule to understand.聽 It鈥檚 also targeted by immunotherapy drugs so the more detail we have on how it works, the better we can deploy these drugs.鈥

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  • Credit: ' Crystal structure of CTLA4' by