Rockefeller Study Links 1 Amino Acid to Immune Blindness in Cancer and Infection
Updated
Updated · Tech Times · Jul 31
Rockefeller Study Links 1 Amino Acid to Immune Blindness in Cancer and Infection
3 articles · Updated · Tech Times · Jul 31
Summary
A Cell study from Rockefeller found that low arginine can make cancer cells and virus-infected cells effectively invisible to T cells by sharply reducing MHC-I surface display.
414 proteins fell under arginine-depleted conditions, with HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-C among the hardest hit, because ribosomes stalled at arginine codons rather than the genes being switched off.
In mouse models, restoring arginine suppressed colon tumors and eased influenza and SARS-CoV-2 disease, including when supplementation began after infection.
The mechanism may help explain why roughly 80% of checkpoint inhibitor patients do not respond or later relapse: unblocked T cells still fail if tumors lack MHC-I flags.
The findings point to low-cost combination trials in cancer and high-risk older adults, but the evidence is still limited to mice and researchers cautioned against self-supplementation.