A new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine found that immune systems that are battling long-term infections or chronic diseases are left fatigued, and identified nine distinct varieties of exhausted T cells, or Tex.
Senior author and and Director of the Institute for Immunology John Wherry has spent 10 years categorizing the diversity of Tex. Normal T cells that grow fatigued naturally lose their capacity to fight germs and tumors. But Tex experience more advanced effects, like stalled biochemical pathways from inhibitory receptor proteins, and changes in metabolism.
Identifying Tex clusters and their relation to disease type and progression means that more specific, individualized immunotherapies for diseases like melanoma, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer are possible.
By identifying the distinct Tex cluster, the research team may be able to individualize patient care with greater specificity and accuracy, depending on the behavior of the cell clusters. Says Wherry, “We want to be able to select and tailor immune therapies according to a patient’s exhausted T cell pool and its individual characteristics.”
Read more at Penn Medicine News.
