Targeting New Mechanisms In The Control Of Thymus Function To Restore Balanced T-cell Production

免疫系统是人体细胞和组织的混合物，具有多种基本功能。首先，免疫细胞对抗病毒、细菌和寄生虫的感染，这些统称为病原体。事实上，作为科学家，我们已经通过创造免疫过程，劫持了免疫系统识别和瞄准外来入侵者的非凡能力，在免疫过程中，无害形式的病原体可以用作疫苗，然后保护我们免受潜在威胁生命的疾病的侵袭。其次，我们的免疫系统在识别和增强对癌症期间形成的肿瘤的反应方面很重要。最近，癌症治疗的有效疗法使用了提高免疫细胞识别和靶向癌症的能力的方法，这再次强调了免疫系统在健康和疾病中的重要性。在免疫系统功能的各个方面，T细胞被认为是管弦乐队必不可少的指挥者。T细胞是一种特殊类型的白细胞，具有多种功能。例如，它们既可以直接杀死病原体，也可以帮助其他免疫细胞发挥作用。重要的是，T细胞只在体内的一个部位产生，这个器官被称为胸腺。这个器官位于心脏上方，位于胸部，其唯一目的是支持T细胞发育的复杂过程。因此，了解胸腺是如何工作的，对于了解我们的免疫系统是如何工作的至关重要。如果没有功能正常的胸腺，免疫系统就会受到严重损害，我们很容易受到病原体的攻击，否则这些病原体是无害的。尽管胸腺的重要性已为人所知，但我们仍然不了解胸腺是如何发育和发挥作用的。这一限制是操纵免疫系统以更好地治疗T细胞发育缺失或减少(免疫缺陷)或针对我们自己的身体(自身免疫)的疾病的主要瓶颈。此外，随着胸腺随着年龄的增长而变小，老年人的免疫系统也会受到影响。这提供了多个主要障碍。首先，它限制了老年人接种疫苗的成功。其次，它影响了骨髓移植在癌症患者中的成功应用，在癌症患者中，正常免疫功能的恢复有赖于功能正常的胸腺。我们相信，通过了解胸腺，我们将能够限制危及生命的疾病，并改进癌症的治疗。我们知道胸腺中的上皮细胞对其功能很重要，但我们不知道这些细胞是如何工作的。通过识别新类型的上皮细胞，我们将找出胸腺的哪些部分负责其功能。此外，通过发现胸腺在健康和骨髓移植后如何产生不同类型的T细胞，我们将能够操纵和监测胸腺功能。通过识别控制健康胸腺的机制，我们将能够识别新的靶点，以增强疾病中的胸腺功能。最终，我们的研究将意味着我们将对免疫系统中重要器官的工作方式有更深入的了解，然后我们可以利用这些原理来设计更好、更有效和更具体的疗法，以纠正或改善多重免疫疾病。

The immune system is a mixture of cells and tissues in our body that has multiple essential functions. First, immune cells fight infection by viruses, bacteria and parasites, which are collectively called pathogens. Indeed, as scientists we have hijacked this remarkable ability of the immune system to identify and target foreign invaders by creating the process of immunization, where harmless forms of pathogens can be used as vaccines that then protect us from potentially life threatening diseases. Second, our immune systems are important in recognizing and mounting responses to tumours that form during cancer. Most recently, effective therapies for cancer treatment use approaches to boost the ability of immune cells to recognize and target cancers, which again highlights the importance of the immune system in health and disease. For all aspects of immune system function, T-cells are considered as essential orchestra conductors. T-cells are a specialized type of white blood cell with multiple functions. For example, they can can either directly kill pathogens, or help other immune cells to function. Importantly, T-cells are only made in one site in the body, an organ called the thymus. This organ lies above the heart in the chest, and its sole purpose is to support the complex process of T-cell development. As such, understanding how the thymus works is fundamentally important in understanding how our immune systems work. Without a functional thymus, the immune system is severely compromised, and we are left vulnerable to pathogens that would otherwise be innocuous. Despite the known importance of the thymus, we still do not understand how the thymus develops and functions. This limitation is a major bottleneck in being able to manipulate the immune system to generate better treatments for diseases where T-cell development is absent or reduced (immunodeficiency) or targeted against our own body (autoimmunity). In addition, as the thymus gets smaller with age, the immune system in elderly life becomes compromised. This provides multiple major obstacles. First, it limits the success of vaccination in the elderly. Second, it impacts upon the successful use of bone marrow transplantation for cancer patients, where recovery of normal immune function depends on a functional thymus. We believe that by understanding the thymus, we will be able to limit life-threatening diseases, and improve the treatment of cancer. We know that epithelial cells present in the thymus are important for its function, but we don't know how these cells work. By identifying new types of epithelial cell, we will work out which parts of the thymus are responsible for its function. In addition, by discovering how the thymus produces different types of T-cell, in both health and following bone marrow transplant, we will be able to manipulate and monitor thymus function. Through the identification of mechanisms that control the thymus in health, we will be able to identify new targets to boost thymus function in disease. Ultimately, our research will mean that we will have a far deeper understanding of the way in which an essential organ works in our immune systems, which we can then use to design better, more effective and specific therapies that correct or improve multiple immune disorders.