A group of killer T cells (green and red) surrounding a cancer cell (blue, center). Image by NIH.
T cells – immune cells that patrol our bodies in search of trouble – have become a central focus for UC San Francisco scientists working on living cell therapies, an approach that views cells themselves as a form of medicine.
“From my perspective there’s no more important system in the body than the immune system, especially T cells,” said Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD, an emeritus professor of medicine at the UCSF Diabetes Center and CEO of the T cell therapy company Sonoma Biotherapeutics. “T cells are potent, diverse and circulate in every tissue from your head to your toes. They play a fundamental role in maintaining a healthy human body.”
T cells are potent, diverse and circulate in every tissue from your head to your toes. They play a fundamental role in maintaining a healthy human body.
Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD
T cells actually include a diverse group of cells with specialized roles. So-called killer T cells attack foreign invaders, while helper T cells release signals to orchestrate the overall immune response. Once a threat is neutralized, another subset – the regulatory T cells, produce anti-inflammatory factors that shut down the immune response.
T cells’ range of behaviors and their ability to survive for years in our bodies have made them attractive candidates for living cell therapies. UCSF researchers are finding ways to modify T cells to enhance our immune response against cancers and viral infection and to quiet our immune response in autoimmune disorders. Harnessing the power of the body’s own systems to create adaptive therapeutics is at the core of the University’s new Living Therapeutics Initiative, which will provide new facilities, resources and leadership in this area.
“The therapies we’re used to use ‘dumb’ drugs, with just one trick,” said Qizhi Tang, PhD, associate professor of surgery and director of the Transplantation Research Lab. “Living cell therapies can be thought of as smart drugs – they go where they need to go and pull out a variety of mechanisms to deal with the situation. And T cells have an arsenal of tools built in.”