In an article published in Science Immunology, Professor Lucy Walker’s 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 “checkpoint” to be identified.
Immune cells use CTLA-4 to regulate the behaviour of other immune cells – but until now we didn’t 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’s immunoregulatory activity.
Professor Walker said: “This 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’s a key molecule to understand. It’s also targeted by immunotherapy drugs so the more detail we have on how it works, the better we can deploy these drugs.”
Links
- Read the paper: CTLA-4–mediated transendocytosis of costimulatory molecules primarily targets migratory dendritic cells (Science Immunology)
- Profile: Professor Lucy Walker
Image
- Credit: ’ Crystal structure of CTLA4’ by Ramin Herati via Wikicommons
