Phagocytes versus killer cells – A closer look into the tumour tissue

© UDE/Frank Preuß

„It was already known that cancer patients that have many of these immune cells migrated into their tumour tissue have reduced survival rates”, says Sven Brandau, head of the Department of Experimental und Translational Research.

„Therefore, experts suspected that those phagocytic cells, the so-called neutrophils, could inhibit the fight of the killer immune cells against cancer.“

Using advanced microscopy technologies and analyses, Brandau and his collaborators have now uncovered the interaction between the neutrophils and killer cells in tumour tissue. „We were able to show that the neutrophils actually touch the killer cells and prevent the killing of the cancer cells.“

In future investigations, the researchers at the UK Essen would like to block the entry of the phagocytes into the tumour tissue in order to develop novel immunotherapies against cancer.

Cooperation partners in the study were teams from dermatology and experimental immunology.

Editor: Milena Hänisch, Phone +49 201/723-6274, milena.haenisch@uk-essen.de
Translation: Alexandra Niessen, Phone +49 203/37 9-1487, alexandra.niessen@uni-due.de

Prof. Dr. Sven Brandau, Phone: +49 201/723-3193, Sven.brandau@uk-essen.de

https://immunology.sciencemag.org/

Media Contact

Dr. Alexandra Nießen idw - Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors