ROLE OF T-CELLS IN HELPING CANCER PATIENT AMIDST COVID 19

ROLE OF T-CELLS IN HELPING CANCER PATIENT AMIDST COVID 19

Subject : Science & tech

Context :Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, US, found that blood cancer patients with Covid-19 who had higher CD8 T cells, many of whom had depleted antibodies from cancer treatments, were more than three times more likely to survive than patients with lower levels of CD8 T cells.

Concept :

• Antibodies aren’t the only immune cells needed to fight off Covid-19, T cells are equally important and can step up to do the job when antibodies are depleted, suggests a new study of blood cancer patients with coronavirus.

T- Cells

• T Cells also called T lymphocyte, type of leukocyte (white blood cell) that is an essential part of the immune system.
• T cells are one of two primary types of lymphocytes—B cells being the second type—that determine the specificity of the immune response to antigens (foreign substances) in the body.
• T cells originate in the bone marrow and mature in the thymus.

Why are they called memory cells?

• In the thymus, T cells multiply and differentiate into helper, regulatory, or cytotoxic T cells or become memory T cells.
• They are then sent to peripheral tissues or circulate in the blood or lymphatic system.
• Once stimulated by the appropriate antigen, helper T cells secrete chemical messengers called cytokines, which stimulate the differentiation of B cells into plasma cells (antibody-producing cells).

How do they control immunity?

• Regulatory T cells act to control immune reactions, hence their name.
• Cytotoxic T cells, which are activated by various cytokines, bind to and kill infected cells and cancer cells.
• Because the body contains millions of T and B cells, many of which carry unique receptors, it can respond to virtually any antigen.