{"id":242257,"date":"2026-08-05T13:03:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/newly-discovered-protein-acts-as-off-switch-for-human-immune-cells"},"modified":"2026-08-05T13:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:03:21","slug":"newly-discovered-protein-acts-as-off-switch-for-human-immune-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/newly-discovered-protein-acts-as-off-switch-for-human-immune-cells","title":{"rendered":"Newly-discovered protein acts as off switch for human immune cells"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/newly-discovered-protein-acts-as-off-switch-for-human-immune-cells.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a protein that cancer cells use to shut down the body\u2019s immune response, a discovery that could help scientists develop new treatments that make cancer immunotherapies more effective.<\/p>\n<p>Published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the study identifies a previously unknown role for a protein called TRAILshort, which acts like an immune \u201coff switch.\u201d The researchers found that TRAILshort prevents T cells \u2014 the immune system\u2019s primary cancer-fighting cells \u2014 from recognizing and destroying cancer and virus-infected cells. In preclinical models, blocking the protein restored T-cell activity and improved immune response.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers also found that TRAILshort reduces the effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy (CAR-T cell therapy), one of the most advanced forms of cancer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news-medical.net\/health\/What-is-Immunotherapy.aspx\">immunotherapy<\/a>. Their findings suggest that therapies designed to block TRAILshort could improve CAR-T treatment and potentially benefit other immune-based cancer therapies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a protein that cancer cells use to shut down the body\u2019s immune response, a discovery that could help scientists develop new treatments that make cancer immunotherapies more effective. Published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the study identifies a previously unknown role for a protein called TRAILshort, which acts like [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242257","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\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}