{"id":219013,"date":"2025-07-29T18:06:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T23:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/uncovering-how-an-immune-brake-molecule-doubles-as-a-skin-defense-guide"},"modified":"2025-07-29T18:06:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T23:06:20","slug":"uncovering-how-an-immune-brake-molecule-doubles-as-a-skin-defense-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/uncovering-how-an-immune-brake-molecule-doubles-as-a-skin-defense-guide","title":{"rendered":"Uncovering how an immune \u2018brake\u2019 molecule doubles as a skin defense guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/uncovering-how-an-immune-brake-molecule-doubles-as-a-skin-defense-guide2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have discovered that PD-1\u2014a molecule best known for putting the brakes on immune cells\u2014also plays a critical role in helping T cells become long-term immune defenders in the skin. Early during infection, PD-1 acts like a steering wheel, guiding T cells to become protective resident memory T cells (TRM) that stay in place. These cells remember invading germs or cancer and quickly mount a response if that enemy reappears.<\/p>\n<p>The preclinical findings, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41590-025-02228-1\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> July 29 in <i>Nature Immunology<\/i>, may impact how clinicians approach cancer treatments called immune checkpoint inhibitors. These drugs bind to PD-1 on the surface of T cells, releasing the brakes and unleashing the immune system to attack <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/cancer+cells\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">cancer cells<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Though immune checkpoint inhibitors are successful in treating melanoma, an aggressive skin cancer, about 40% of patients develop inflammatory rashes and itching in the skin or reactions in other epithelial tissues that cover internal and external surfaces of the body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have discovered that PD-1\u2014a molecule best known for putting the brakes on immune cells\u2014also plays a critical role in helping T cells become long-term immune defenders in the skin. Early during infection, PD-1 acts like a steering wheel, guiding T cells to become protective resident memory T cells (TRM) that stay [\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-219013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219013","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=219013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}