How immune system B-cells react to very different substances
Friday, October 8, 2010 - 03:33
in Health & Medicine
In order to track down pathogens and render them harmless, the immune system must be able to recognize myriad different foreign substances and react to them. Scientists have discovered how the immune system's B-cells can be activated by numerous substances from our environment. The receptor molecules on the surface of the B-cells are only activated when the receptor subunits separate following the binding of foreign substances. These findings turn the previous understanding of how B-cell receptors are activated on its head and may contribute to the development of new vaccination strategies and treatments for B-cell tumors.