Human T cellFLICKR, NIAIDEditor’s note (December 16, 2016): This paper has been retracted.
After a genetic mouse screen revealed a strain of mice that produced 10 times as many cytotoxic T cells as its wild-type counterparts when infected with a virus, researchers knew they were onto something interesting. The mice not only suppressed viral infections more effectively, but those infections spurred the production of more memory T cells that allowed the animals to mount an even more efficient response to the virus upon reinfection. Finally, the mice were also more resistant to cancer.
“The discovery of a protein that could boost the immune response to not only cancer, but also to viruses, is a fascinating one,” Mike Turner, head of infection and immunobiology at the Wellcome Trust who was not involved in the study, said in a press ...
