Overcoming T cell tolerance to tumour antigens: an evaluation of the role of helper responses.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project aims to investigate ways of enhancing the immune system such that it is able to eradicate cancerous cells. The strategy we will adopt is to genetically alter immune cells to recognise a molecule on the surface of cancer cells. Once recognised as abnormal, the cancer cell should be targeted for killing. However, sometimes the distinction between cancerous and normal cells is incomplete. A potential problem with immune therapy, therefore, is that modified immune cells may kill normal cells leading to ‘auto-immune‘ diseases. Conversely, they may either fail to recognise cancer cells or become over-stimulated and stop killing. We know that there are natural mechanisms which exist to prevent immune cells becoming unresponsive in this way e.g. in the setting of infection. It may be that we can exploit these, much as childhood vaccines have enabled us to boost immunity to common viral infectionsWe will investigate the functioning of genetically altered immune cells within a mouse model. We will then investigate strategies to improve their recognition and killing of cancer cells with a view to improving future immune therapies for cancer.