{"id":233645,"date":"2026-03-19T07:09:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/cancer-drug-protein-target-may-also-help-fight-influenza"},"modified":"2026-03-19T07:09:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:09:44","slug":"cancer-drug-protein-target-may-also-help-fight-influenza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/cancer-drug-protein-target-may-also-help-fight-influenza","title":{"rendered":"Cancer drug protein target may also help fight influenza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/cancer-drug-protein-target-may-also-help-fight-influenza3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A protein already targeted by FDA-approved cancer drugs may also help the body fight influenza, according to new research from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX). Published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/cell-reports\/fulltext\/S2211-1247(26)00017-3\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Cell Reports<\/i><\/a>, the study found that Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1), a protein best known for helping tumors evade immune attack, instead helped immunocompromised mice clear flu-infected lung cells and survive infection.<\/p>\n<p>The findings challenge long-standing assumptions about PD-L1\u2019s role in the immune system. While cancer therapies work by blocking PD-L1 to boost immune attack on tumors, the new research suggests that <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2022-04-immune.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">enhancing PD-L1 signaling<\/a> may help the body control severe respiratory viral infections, especially in people with T cell immunodeficiencies such as those with HIV or immunosuppression after chemotherapy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis discovery suggests that a pathway targeted in cancer could also be useful in infectious disease, but in the opposite way. Cancer therapies block PD-L1, whereas in flu, enhancing it may strengthen host defense,\u201d said Silke Paust, a JAX professor and immunologist who directed the research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A protein already targeted by FDA-approved cancer drugs may also help the body fight influenza, according to new research from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX). Published in Cell Reports, the study found that Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1), a protein best known for helping tumors evade immune attack, instead helped immunocompromised mice clear flu-infected lung 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-233645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233645","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=233645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}