In cancer and chronic infections immune balance can be disrupted, resulting in immune system dysfunction or ‘exhaustion.’ An important protein called TOX, which varies in amount in different immune cell types, controls the identity of the cells that become exhausted. With this knowledge, investigators now have a way to accurately identify immune cells that are exhausted in a tumor or site of an infection and improve the effectiveness of patients’ immune response to treatment.
Source: EurekaAlert, https://www.eurekalert.org