Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and ETH Zurich are working to establish a more comprehensive diagram of them throughout the body. The achievement, which is decades in the making and only made possible through recent technological advances, involves a technique called high-throughput surface receptor screening. This enabled the team to systematically map immune cell protein interactions on an unprecedented scale.

Figure 1: Mapping immune cell protein interactions on an unprecedented scale.

Figure 1 shows that“carefully isolating and analyzing every immune cell and their interactions with others has given us the first map of interactions between all immune cells in the human body,” said Jarrod Shilts. [1]

"This is a huge step in understanding the inner workings of the immune system and will hopefully be utilized by researchers all around the world to help develop new therapies that work with the body’s defense mechanisms.”

This wiring diagram details how immune cells connect and communicate throughout the body and includes previously unknown interactions. This offers valuable new insights into the way the body organizes its immune defenses, and may help efforts to develop treatments that increase their ability to fight disease, with immunotherapy for cancer a prime example.

“Immunotherapies work with the body’s immune system to combat diseases such as cancer and autoimmunity," said Gavin Wright. "They can be incredibly effective in certain groups of people, but not all, leaving some people without treatment. Our research, a culmination of over two decades of work, could hold the key to understanding why these treatments are more effective in some groups, and how they could be adapted to ensure that as many people as possible can benefit from them.” [2]

Map used to see the impact of different diseases on the immune system as a whole, and investigate new therapies that bind to different proteins on the immune cell surface.

“This research has produced an incredible new tool that can be used to help highlight which proteins and pathways would be beneficial to target in drug development. It can also give insight into whether a drug will have impact on other pathways, which can cause side effects.”

All of this information may help in the development of new therapies and could give crucial supporting evidence to help ensure that the most effective substances are put into clinical trials. [3]

References:

1. https://biz.crast.net/scientists-create-first-complete-map-of-human-immune-system-connectivity/
2. https://newatlas.com/medical/first-map-human-immune-system-connectivity/
3. https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2022/08/first-map-of-immune-system-connections-reveals-new-therapeutic-opportunities.html

Cite this article:

Sri Vasagi K (2022), A Full Body Diagram to Map the Immune Cell Protein Interactions, AnaTechMaz, pp.75