article_snippet.sent: ’s number of T-cells.
article_snippet.sent: ’s number of T-cells are now developing a gene therapy that would boost the production of LEM proteins, in turn increasing the number of T-cells available to attack cancer cells.
article_snippet.sent: Cytotoxic T-cells are an important component of the immune system, but when faced with serious infections or advanced cancer, Cytotoxic T-cells are usually unable to mobilise in large enough quantities to fight the disease.
article_snippet.sent: ’s number of T-cells .
article_snippet.sent: By screening mice with genetic mutations, the Imperial team discovered a strain of mice that produced ten times as many cytotoxic T-cells when infected with a virus, compared with normal mice.
article_snippet.sent: But normal mice suppressed infections more effectively and were far more resistant to cancer.
article_snippet.sent: normal mice also produced more of a second type of T-cells, memory cells, enabling normal mice to recognise infections normal mice have encountered previously and launch a rapid response.
article_snippet.sent: Study leader Professor Philip Ashton-Rickardt of Imperial College, said: ‘Cancer cells have ways to suppress T-cell activity, helping Cancer cells to escape the human immune system.
article_snippet.sent: ‘Genetically engineering T cells to augment Cancer cells ability to fight cancer has been a goal for some time and techniques for modifying Cancer cells already exist.
article_snippet.sent: By introducing an active version of the LEM gene into the T-cells of cancer patients, we hope we can provide a robust treatment for patients.