{"id":167841,"date":"2023-07-19T16:29:50","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T21:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/new-developmental-role-in-immune-cells-can-kill-pathogens"},"modified":"2023-07-19T16:29:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T21:29:50","slug":"new-developmental-role-in-immune-cells-can-kill-pathogens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/new-developmental-role-in-immune-cells-can-kill-pathogens","title":{"rendered":"New Developmental Role in Immune Cells Can Kill Pathogens"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

T cells are immune cells that fight off disease. The most common type of T cell, known as conventional T cells, maintains different functions, including activation of other T cells and killing pathogens. However, there is a less common type of T cell known as unconventional T cells. These cells regulate conventional T cells and often suppress conventional T cell function. How these cells develop and protect the body from infection and disease is unclear. Dr. Dan Pellicci<\/a> and colleagues from Murdoch Children\u2019s Research Institute<\/a> and Federation University Australia<\/a> reported on unconventional T cell development and their role in the immune system in a recent Science Immunology<\/a> paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The researchers found that these unconventional T cells elicit an immune response. The discovery of an anti-pathogen role in these T cells has been unknown previously. Scientists can target these cells to prevent cancer and highly infectious diseases by understanding their role in immunity.<\/p>\n

Dr. Pellicci and colleagues gathered samples from the Melbourne Children\u2019s Heart Tissue Bank<\/a>, where samples from children sixteen years old or younger who had heart surgery were kept. The researchers looked at the T cells from the thymus, a gland that further develops or matures T cells. After the T cells exit the thymus, they are ready to activate and target or kill infecting pathogens. Through T cell isolation, Dr. Pellicci and colleagues were able to determine the role of Unconventional T cells.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

T cells are immune cells that fight off disease. The most common type of T cell, known as conventional T cells, maintains different functions, including activation of other T cells and killing pathogens. However, there is a less common type of T cell known as unconventional T cells. These cells regulate conventional T cells and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}