{"id":236281,"date":"2026-04-30T22:40:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T03:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/t-cells-secrete-dna-to-boost-the-immune-systems-cancer-fighting-ability"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:40:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T03:40:34","slug":"t-cells-secrete-dna-to-boost-the-immune-systems-cancer-fighting-ability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/t-cells-secrete-dna-to-boost-the-immune-systems-cancer-fighting-ability","title":{"rendered":"T cells secrete DNA to boost the immune system\u2019s cancer-fighting ability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/t-cells-secrete-dna-to-boost-the-immune-systems-cancer-fighting-ability.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Activated immune cells secrete tiny capsules bearing DNA that can enter other immune and tumor cells to stimulate the body\u2019s defense systems, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The discovery extends the scientific understanding of the immune system, identifies a new strategy for boosting immunity against cancers and potentially offers a new tool for delivering genetic payloads to other cells.<\/p>\n<p>Most animal cells secrete tiny capsules known as extracellular vesicles\u2014nanoscale, membrane-bound particles\u2014whose cargo can include proteins, snippets of DNA and other molecules. In the new study, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/cancer-cell\/fulltext\/S1535-6108(26)00177-7\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> April 30 in <i>Cancer Cell<\/i>, the researchers discovered that vesicles secreted by <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-04-approach-cancer-treatment-tiny-vesicles.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\" target=\"_blank\">activated T cells <\/a>\u2014major weapons of the immune system\u2014carry DNA that enters immune cells and nearby tumor cells to enhance the immune response against the tumor. Preclinical experiments showed that this vesicle-associated DNA could be useful therapeutically, boosting T cell attacks against tumors that otherwise evoke little or no immune response.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese findings reveal a natural mechanism for treating immunologically silent tumors and other diseases that stem from insufficient immune surveillance,\u201d said study co-senior author Dr. David Lyden, the Stavros S. Niarchos Professor in Pediatric Cardiology and a member of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children\u2019s Health and the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Activated immune cells secrete tiny capsules bearing DNA that can enter other immune and tumor cells to stimulate the body\u2019s defense systems, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The discovery extends the scientific understanding of the immune system, identifies a new strategy for boosting immunity against cancers and potentially offers [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,1495,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-health","category-nanotechnology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236281","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=236281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}