Scientists discover new T cells and genes related to immune disorders

  • 📰 ScienceDaily
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 46 sec. here
  • 9 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 46%
  • Publisher: 53%

Immune System News

Lymphoma,Human Biology,Diseases And Conditions

Researchers have discovered several rare types of helper T cells that are associated with immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and even asthma. The discoveries were made possible by a newly developed technology they call ReapTEC.

The new T cell atlas is publicly available and should help in the development of new drug therapies for immune-mediated diseases.

Within all cells, including T cells, there are regions of DNA called “enhancers”. This DNA does not code for proteins. Instead, it codes for small pieces of RNA, and enhances the expression of other genes. Variations in T cell enhancer DNA therefore lead to differences in gene expression, and this can affect how T cells function. Some enhancers are bidirectional, which means that both strands of the DNA are used as templates for enhancer RNA.

Going even deeper into the data, the researchers were able to show that individual enhancers in certain rare T cells are related to specific immune diseases. Overall, among the 63,000 bidirectional enhancers, they were able to identify 606 that included single-nucleotide polymorphisms related to 18 immune-mediated diseases. Lastly, the researchers were able to identify some of the genes that are the targets of these disease-related enhancers.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 452. in TECHNOLOGY

Technology Technology Latest News, Technology Technology Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Researchers determine that crystal cells in fruit flies help transport oxygen throughout the bodyA team of life scientists at Hanyang University, in Korea, working with a pair of colleagues from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, has found that fruit flies use crystal cells to transport oxygen throughout their bodies.
Source: physorg_com - 🏆 388. / 55 Read more »

Scientists Create Robot Controlled by Blob of Human Brain CellsScience and Technology News and Videos
Source: futurism - 🏆 85. / 68 Read more »