A PROTEIN that is crucial for cell suicide might be a good target for cancer
drugs.
Immune cells known as T lymphocytes, which destroy infected or cancerous
cells, normally self-destruct afterwards. But Peter Juo and his colleagues at
Harvard University produced mutant T cells that failed to do so. These cells
lacked the gene for caspase-8, a protein known to be involved in cell death.
The team concludes that caspase-8 is necessary for T cells to respond to a
signalling protein called Fas ligand, which initiates cell death (Current
Biology, vol 8, p 1001). Some tumours fend off the immune system by making
Fas ligand, causing T-cells to die when they try to attack. Juo says drugs that
target caspase-8 might be able to stop this. “It’s a stretch, but it’s
possible,” he says.
