B lymphocytes are cells of the human immune system that are responsible for production of antibodies. Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have discovered a way to turn B cells into “tiny surveillance machines” and “antibody factories.”
Thanks to this, they are supposed to gain the ability to produce special antibodies to destroy, among others, “the two most dangerous enemies of medicine”, i.e. cancer cells and the HIV virus.
Research published on July 22 this year in the journal “Nature Biomedical Engineering” describe a technique for modifying B lymphocytes in such a way that “turbocharge them for combat” with the most dangerous diseases.
“For some diseases, the natural antibodies that B cells produce are just not good enough,” said Paula Cannon, an associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Keck School of Medicine at USC. “HIV is a great example of this. It mutates constantly, keeping one step ahead of the antibodies that are trying to fight it. We thought that getting B cells to do the trick would do the trick.” producing antibodies that would have such a broad ability to “spot” HIV that it could not easily mutate.
As experts emphasize, their work on “hacking” B lymphocytes represents a major advance in harnessing the power of antibodies to treat a range of diseases, from Alzheimer’s to arthritis.
“This is a B-cell reprogramming technology that can be applied to almost anything you can imagine with antibodies,” said Geoffrey Rogers, a colleague of Paula Cannon, a research associate and senior postdoctoral fellow. We believe that we will be able to completely customize everything related to antibodies.
Source: geekweek.interia.pl
