Immunity system complexity: T cell triggers to fight cancer (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, September 30, 2023, 18:48 (210 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by David Turell, Saturday, September 30, 2023, 18:56

They have an ancient origin:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230925153805.htm

"A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has shown that a single, small strand of microRNA, or miRNA, known as let-7, governs the ability of T-cells to recognize and remember tumor cells. This cellular memory is the basis for how vaccines work.

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"'Our bodies have T-cells, which are white blood cells that specialize in fighting both pathogens, think of the common cold, and altered cells of the organism itself, like tumor cells. Most of the time, the T-cells are "naïve" -- mustered out of duty and resting. But when they recognize foreign antigens after bumping into them, they suddenly wake up, turn into killer T-cells and attack whatever the pathogen may be, from the sniffles to COVID, or even cancer. After the killer T-cells have won their battle, most of them die."

"'But," says Pobezinsky, "somehow a few survive, transform into memory cells and form an elite task force called the 'memory pool' -- they remember what that particular antigen looked like, so that they can be on the lookout for the next time it invades the body."

"This is one of the mechanisms behind how vaccines work: infect the body with a weakened dose of a pathogen -- say, the chicken pox virus -- and the memory cells will remember what that virus looks like, turn into killer T-cells, annihilate the virally infected cells and then transform back into memory cells, waiting for the next time the chicken pox virus shows up.

"But it's never been clearly understood just how T-cells form their memories.

"Moreover, cancerous tumor cells work by tricking the killer T-cells, turning them off before they can attack and create a memory pool, leaving the cancer to metastasize unchecked.

"'What we've discovered," says Pobezinsky, "is that a tiny piece of miRNA, let-7, which has been handed down the evolutionary tree since the dawn of animal life, is highly expressed in memory cells, and that the more let-7 a cell has, the less chance that it will be tricked by cancerous tumor cells, and the greater chance it has of turning into a memory cell." If the memory cell isn't tricked by the cancer, then it can fight and, crucially, remember what that cancerous cell looks like.

"'Memory cells can live for a very long time," adds Pobezinskaya. "They possess stem-cell-like features and can live for 70 years."

"'We are very excited, not only about the fundamental insights this research has provided, but also the translational impact it could have on next generation immunotherapies," says lead author Alexandria Wells.

Comment: An all-knowing God recognized mistakes could cause cancer and provided T cells with an answer to which they automatically answer by following their DNA instructions. Note the problem in older adults:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230925124847.htm

"'Based on previous studies, we expected to find that killer T cells in older adults were less effective because they had become exhausted or 'fallen asleep'," said Dr van de Sandt.

"'However, to our surprise, the very efficient killer T cells that we detected in children and adults seemed to actually disappear and be replaced with suboptimal cells in older adults. It is almost as if you replace the sword of a Roman soldier with a kitchen knife; they can learn how to use it, but it will never be as efficient as the sword.

"'One of the most intriguing findings of the study was that these cells, with a lower ability to recognise influenza viruses, displayed gene features closely similar to T cells found in newborns.'"

Comment: The answer for older adults is currently to give a double dose of the vaccine. Humans have the brains to help where God not designed an answer.