Take a chill pill, T cell
A receptor on infection-fighting cells may be a novel target for drugs that fight autoimmune disease.
By Tia Ghose
In people with autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and asthma, infection-fighting cells go haywire and wage war against the body’s own tissue, causing inflammation. Existing treatments can prevent the immune system from getting out of control, but can also compromise a person’s ability to fight some infections.
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But a new study suggests that a specific receptor on immune cells holds promise as a target for treating such disorders, perhaps without affecting immunity.
The receptor, called DR3, lies on the surface of T cells, which help the body combat infection. When a molecule called TL1A binds to the receptor, it spurs the T cells into action. But this same interaction can also lead the T cells to attack healthy tissue. Turning off the gene for this receptor seems to quell this inflammation in mice, researchers report online June 19 in the journal Immunity.