Immune Checkpoint Discovery Has Implications for Treating Cancer and Autoimmune Diseases

March 28, 2024byDr. Monica M. Bertagnolli

Your immune system should ideally recognize and attack infectious invaders and cancerous cells. But the system requires safety mechanisms, or brakes, to keep it from damaging healthy cells. To do this, T cellsthe immune systems most powerful attackersrely on immune checkpoints to turn immune activation down when they receive the right signal. While these interactions have been well studied, a research team supported in part by NIH has made an unexpected discovery into how a key immune checkpoint works, with potentially important implications for therapies designed to boost or dampen immune activity to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.