Scientists are beginning to unravel the secrets of the immune system at the nanoscale level

Immune system It works on a scale that scientists are only just beginning to see. This new view could change how diseases look cancer It is processed.

Speaking at WIRED Health on April 16, Daniel Davis, an immunologist at Imperial College London, detailed how researchers are using advanced microscopes to reveal previously unseen dynamics in… Human immune systemThis demonstrates that there are multiple processes occurring at the “nano scale” that were previously out of reach.

This new view is already reshaping how immunity is understood. “We discovered something known as the immune synapse, which is that a lot of different protein molecules are known to stimulate the immune system,” Davis said.

He explained that today’s microscopes reveal worlds “that we had no idea existed.” “There was actually no hypothesis that led us to this,” he said. “It was watching things happen under a microscope.”

On this scale, even the first moments of contact between cells look different. “When an immune cell attaches to another cell, it has to decide whether that other cell is healthy or diseased,” he said. “Little nano-sized protrusions come out of the immune cell to make that initial contact.”

In collaboration with pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, his lab is exploring how this level of detail can be used not just to monitor immune responses, but to influence them. For example, after killing a diseased cell, an immune cell must break off and go on to attack another cell, a process that scientists have only recently been able to observe in detail.

Davis’ team is experimenting with re-engineered antibodies — Y-shaped molecules that act as a bridge between immune cells and cancer cells — to strengthen the signals that activate those immune cells. By binding to the immune cell in this way and bringing key proteins closer together, these molecules can “send a really strong signal to the immune cell to turn on the cancer and kill it.”

In theory, this suggests that arranging molecules on immune cells could make them more effective at killing target cells, potentially improving how the immune system attacks cancer or, in autoimmune diseases, eliminates harmful cells. While the work is currently at an early stage, Davis says, “It may eventually lead to something that can be tried in patients.”

He explains that there are many different types of molecules that you can modify their position on the surface of an immune cell. “I have no real idea which ones would be better to target or not to target. Right now, strategies are making a lot of bets.”

“A lot of different small startups are trying a lot of different versions of this type of treatment” as they try to figure out what might enable such a powerful response, he said.

Along with these developments, Davis emphasized that immune health is inherently individual. He explained that of all human genes, the genes that vary most between people – perhaps surprisingly – are not those that determine appearance, but those associated with the immune system.

“There is a fundamental biological reason behind the diversity of humans, and that is because our species has evolved to survive all different types of diseases,” he said.

This means that people respond differently to the same infection. “Maybe I think I haven’t exercised enough, I haven’t eaten the right foods, and I’m too stressed,” he said. In fact, “you may have inherited a certain set of immune system genes that make you better at fighting this type of disease.”

“There is no hierarchy in the system,” he added.

Currently, immune health practices are not at the point where they can tailor treatments to those differences. Although some companies are working on a personalized approach, the ability to harness individual immune health remains a future goal, Davis added.