How cancer starts: how a normal cell turns into cancer
Immunotherapy: how releasing a brake on T cells fights cancer
At the end of 1994, a team cured mice of cancer without aiming a drug at the cancer at all. They aimed it at the immune system instead. How does a drug for T cells fight a tumour?
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A T cell that attacks by mistake can harm healthy parts of the body. So T cells have pedals too, like the genes that control copying: an accelerator that starts an attack, and brakes that end it.
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One brake, called PD-1, sits on the outside of the T cell. When it touches a partner called PD-L1 on another cell, the brake is pressed and the T cell calms down. Healthy tissues use this to keep the peace.
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