Scientists Begin to Unlock Nanoscale Secrets of the Immune System

The immune system it works at a level that scientists are just beginning to see. The new concept could change the way diseases are treated cancer they are being beaten.

Speaking to WIRED Health on April 16, Daniel Davis, an immunologist at Imperial College London, detailed how researchers are using advanced microscopes to uncover previously unseen capabilities. the human immune systemshowing that there are many processes taking place at the “nanoscale” that were previously inaccessible.

These new concepts are redefining the way security is understood. “We discovered what’s known as an immunological synapse, and that’s how many protein molecules are known to activate the immune system,” Davis said.

Today, microscopes reveal worlds that “we didn’t know existed,” he explained. “There was no idea that led us to this,” he said. “I see things happening under a microscope.”

At this level, even the first contact time between the cells looks different. “When an immune cell attaches itself to another cell, it has to decide whether the other cell is healthy or diseased.” “These tiny nanoscale particles come out of the body’s cells for the first time,” he said.

In collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb, his lab is looking at how these details can be used not only to target immune responses, but to induce them. After killing a diseased cell, for example, an immune cell must leave and go fight another, a process that scientists will soon be able to see in detail.

Davis’ team is experimenting with recombinant antibodies – Y-shaped molecules that act as a bridge between immune cells and cancer cells – to amplify the signals that trigger the immune cells. By binding the immune cells in this way and bringing in the most important proteins, these molecules can “send a very strong signal so that the immune system can turn on and kill the cancer.”

In theory, this suggests that modifying molecules on immune cells can make them more capable of killing their target cells, thereby improving the immune system’s ability to fight cancer or, in autoimmune diseases, eliminate bad cells. Although the work is still in its early stages, Davis says it “could create something that can be tested in patients.”

There are several types of molecules you can put on immune cells, he explains. “I don’t really know which ones would be better to be direct or indirect. Right now, it’s the best bet.”

“A lot of small start-up companies are trying different types of these drugs” as they try to figure out what will give them the strongest response, he said.

Along with this, Davis emphasized that the health of the immune system is individual. Of all the human genes, the ones that vary the most between people—perhaps surprisingly—are not those that determine appearance, but those related to immunity, he explained.

He said: “There is a major reason why we humans live so differently and that is how our species evolved to survive various diseases.”

This means that people respond differently to the same disease. “I can think that I haven’t exercised enough, I haven’t eaten the right things, I’ve been under too much stress,” he said. The truth is, “you may have inherited a certain type of immune system that makes you able to fight the disease.”

“There is no leadership in the system,” he added.

So far, the immune system has not reached a point where it can adapt to this difference. Davis added that while some companies are trying to use their own personal data, the ability to use the human immune system remains a future goal.