RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Scientists discover killer cells' ''on switch'' Thu Aug 14, 2014 7:22 pm | |
| The body’s natural killer cells, as their Hollywood-style name suggests, are key to the immune system. They are programmed to hunt out and destroy foreign and diseased cells. But they don’t always identify their targets. When this happens, diseases such as cancer can set in.
But a team of researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research have worked out what the group of highly specialised killer cells need to function at their best. It’s a protein called MCL-1.
Immunologist Nick Huntington said the protein was effectively a switch which could turn the killer cells on or off.
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/scientists-discover-killer-cells-on-switch-20140814-103we7.html |
|