A New T-cell Population for Cancer Immunotherapy

Scientists at the University of Basel in Switzerland have, for the first time, described a new T'cell population that can recognize and kill tumor cells. The open access journal eLife has published the results. T lymphocytes (short T'cells) are a special type of cells that recognize germs and protect our body from infections. Their second important job is to ride the body of harmed cells, such as tumor cells. T'cells are able to identify tumor cells because they look different than normal healthy cells. The way in which they do this is governed by surface expression of T-cell receptors (TCR). Each receptor interacts with a specific molecule on the surface of the target cell.