Harnessing the power of t-cells could shield against influenza
One of the Holy Grails for flu researchers has been to create a vaccine that stimulates T cells – cells in the immune system that can trigger long lasting immunity. But the tricky part has been working out just how to make this happen effectively.
In a paper published in Nature Communications, Professors Nicole La Gruta and Tony Purcell, and Dr Nathan Croft and their teams from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, have revealed how the immune system ‘presents’ – via two main pathways – small bits of the flu virus (peptides) to T cells to stimulate the development of T cell immunity against the disease. Read more.