The plasma membrane is an essential cellular structure that separates the cell interior from the extracellular environment, while allowing for the exchange of signals and materials that are essential for cell survival and function.Emerging data show that membrane lipids have sophisticated roles in T cell signalling, and that modulating membrane lipids in T cells can treat different diseases in preclinical models.
Prof. XU Chenqi from the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS was invited to review the regulation of T cell signaling by membrane lipids. The complexity of the lipids in the plasma membrane has been long appreciated, but recent developmentsinlipidomics and imagingtechnologies have improved our understanding of plasma membrane lipid dynamics. New studies have started to unveil important functions for plasma membrane lipids in regulating Tcell signalling. Importantly, it has been shownthat the modulation of membrane lipids can be used to harness Tcell activity to treat cancer and autoimmunity. Therefore, lipid-based immunotherapy might be a promising new clinical strategy.
The review entitled “Regulation of T cell signaling by membrane lipids” was published online in Nature Reviews Immunology on Oct 10, 2016.
XU Chenqi’s lab focuses on the study of T cell signaling. They found that TCR functional sites can be sequestrated via ionic protein-lipid interaction (Xu et al, 2008, Cell). Calcium can neutralize the negative charge of acidic phospholipids and disrupt this interaction (Shi et al, 2013, Nature). They also collaborated with other groups and found that ionic protein-lipid interaction plays an important role in the regulation of EGFR and BCR. Recently, they reported a new mechanism by which the antitumour response of mouse CD8(+) T cells can be potentiated by modulating cholesterol metabolism.It also provides a new means of cancer immunotherapy thatmight complement the current immunotherapies(Yang et al, 2016, Nature).
http://www.nature.com/nri/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nri.2016.103.html
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