Granzymes Attack Through Doors In Cell Pores
Our body is almost constantly being threatened by pathogens and cancerous cells that appear out of the blue, but our bodies put up a fight: specialized cells in the immune system smuggle small molecules (granzymes) into cancer cells and those body cells that have fallen prey to viruses. The molecules then trigger off the diseased cells' built-in suicide program. There are two possible ways in which the granzymes gain entry into the cells under attack but despite more than twenty years of research, it remained unclear as to which of these pathways is used to smuggle the lethal amount of granzymes into a cell. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology have now shown that minute pores on the cell surface open the door to the granzymes for a short period of time. These results provide new prospects for improved methods of treatment of chronic virus infections and cancer. Read More...
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