GoKawiil
Tech News
A research paper describes a human lung organoid system developed to study tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) and their antiviral responses in the respiratory tract. The work draws on prior findings about TRM cells' role in protecting against influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and other pulmonary infections, aiming to recreate these dynamics outside the human body for closer study.
Researchers analyzed bronchial tissue from a long-running UCLH bronchoscopy surveillance study tracking patients with preinvasive lung lesions, alongside several related UK cohorts, to examine immune changes as lesions progress toward invasive cancer. The work focused on identifying a regulatory T cell signaling axis present in preinvasive tissue that may influence whether lesions advance to high-grade disease or carcinoma, combining human tissue analysis with mouse model experiments.
Researchers used mouse models with tamoxifen-inducible deletion of the Trgc1 gene, which encodes a component of the γδ T cell receptor, to study how these cells patrol tissues like skin and intestine. By selectively removing the receptor gene in specific cell populations and tracking receptor signaling with reporter mice, they examined how TCR expression influences γδ T cell behavior and distribution across tissues.
Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital used CRISPR-Cas9 screening in mouse T cell models to identify ZMYND8 as a regulator of T cell exhaustion. Removing ZMYND8 boosted IL-2 signalling in antigen-specific CD8+ T cells, including those engineered with CAR constructs, helping the cells retain function against tumours in mouse models.
Researchers analyzed human brain tissue samples from people with and without Alzheimer's disease and identified more than 1,000 microproteins that had previously gone undetected. Dozens of these small proteins showed different expression levels in Alzheimer's-affected brains compared with healthy ones. Separately, a mouse study found that immune cells activated by gut infections can travel to the brain's protective membrane and remain there as a lasting defensive memory.
MIT scientists created a new vaccine adjuvant made of mRNA encoding two genes that push immune cells into a more active state via specific signaling pathways. Delivered in lipid nanoparticles in mouse models of bladder, colon, lung and skin cancers, the adjuvant slowed or eliminated tumors even without a cancer-specific vaccine, and worked even better alongside one or with checkpoint inhibitor drugs.