BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

Unprimed and activated

Making CD4+ T cells bind tumors without APCs

November 19, 2015 8:00 AM UTC

A team at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute has shown that a subset of CD4+ T cells can be induced to directly bind tumor antigens and slow tumor growth without needing to be primed by antigen-presenting cells (APCs), which are often dysfunctional in the tumor microenvironment.

Tumor-infiltrating APCs normally capture cancer antigens and present them to CD4+ T cells, which become activated and help orchestrate an immune attack. But the tumor environment can make APCs immunosuppressive, thus preventing T cell activation and allowing the malignant cells to evade the clearance mechanism. A method for activating CD4+ T cells without the APC priming step would go a long way toward boosting antitumor immunity...