10/31/2010 PERMALINK
How does your body kill rogue cells? SOURCE : The first observations that the human immune system could punch holes in target cells was made by the Nobel laureate Jules Bordet over 110 years ago. But how? A team of Melbourne and London researchers have shown how a protein called perforin punches holes in, and kills, rogue cells in our bodies. Their discovery of the mechanism of this assassin is published today in the science journal Nature. 'Perforin is our body's weapon of cleansing and death,' says project leader Prof James Whisstock from Monash University. 'It breaks into cells that have been hijacked by viruses or turned into cancer cells and allows toxic enzymes in, to destroy the cell from within. Without it our immune system can't destroy these cells. Now we know how it works, we can start to fine tune it to fight cancer, malaria and diabetes.'