New Research Finds Immune Cells Vital To Fight Multiple Diseases

SYDNEY, Aug. 18 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Aug, 2022 ) --:An international research team, including those from Australia, has discovered a new group of immune cells which they believe are vital in helping the body fight against severe infections and cancer.

Their findings, published in the Nature journal on Thursday, may explain why immunotherapy fails in some people, and could lead to the development of more effective new therapies for cancer and viruses such as hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Molecular immunologist Professor Axel Kallies, from Australia's Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at the University of Melbourne, said those life-threatening illnesses can cause "immune exhaustion" that impacts an immune cell population known as cytotoxic T cells.

In previous studies, his team had shown that some types of T cells were able to survive their encounters with the diseases.

The latest study, done in collaboration with scientists from Germany's Technical University of Munich (TUM), has pinpointed the hardy T cell population that helps maintain the body's long-term responses.