Track a Killer

Killer T cells are important disease-fighting members of the immune system. Experiments in the lab show how they rapidly kill one cell after the other with a unique cocktail of chemicals fired out in deadly packages called cytotoxic granules. But like an athlete that shines in training but chokes in the big games, T cells seem to work much more slowly in their natural environment. To understand how they function in the body, researchers genetically modified mice to add a fluorescent tag (green, with the structures that support T cells labelled red) onto a protein in the granules, and used microscopy to observe the T cells in action as they fought off invaders. Getting a glimpse at this process could answer questions about how they interact with other cells in the body, and might provide clues on how to enhance their behaviour to better tackle threats like cancer and viruses.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

Website

• Image from work by Praneeth Chitirala and Hsin-Fang Chang, and colleagues
• Cellular Neurophysiology, Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine (CIPMM), Saarland University, Homburg, Germany
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, July 2020