CD8+ T cells tagged posts

Cutting-edge research has uncovered how chronic stress disrupts the balance of gut microbiota to speed up the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC), opening new avenues for CRC prevention and treatment.

By eliminating certain gut bacteria and inducing stress, researchers were able to conclude a relationship between stress and gut microbiota in the progression of CRC, identifying a particular bacterial species as a potential therapeutic target.

Presenting the study at UEG Week 2024, lead researcher Dr...

Scientists discover role immune system’s T cells play in regulating fat and muscle loss during infection in mice. Scientists discovered that 1) the wasting response to T. brucei infection in mice occurs in two phases, each regulated by different immune cells and 2) fat loss did not benefit the fight against infection, but muscle loss did. The findings inform the development of more effective therapeutics that spare people from wasting and increase our understanding of how wasting influences survival and morbidity across infections, cancers, chronic illnesses, and more.

Although infections can present with many different symptoms, one common symptom is the loss of fat and muscle, a proc...

CD8+ T cells – known as “killer” T cells – are the assassins of the immune system. Once they are primed, they seek out and destroy other cells that are infected with virus or cells that are cancerous.

Priming involves dendritic cells – sentinels of the immune system. In an influenza infection in the lungs, for example, lung-migratory dendritic cells capture a piece of the viral antigen, and then migrate out of the lung to the place where naïve T cells reside, to present that antigen to the CD8+ T cells. This primes the T cells to know which cells to attack.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center are shedding new light on the way microorganisms that live in the gastrointestinal tract can affect the development of colorectal cancer.

Some types of gut bacteria are better than others at stimulating certain immune cells, specifically CD8+ T cells, in the body, they found. And while these CD8+ T cells normally help protect the body against cancer, overstimulating them may promote inflammation and exhaust the T cells — which can actually increase susceptibility to cancer, according to new mouse model study published in Cell Reports.

The work will help scientists pinpoint which populations of bacteria are tumor suppressive or tumor promoting and how, says study first au...