Golgi apparatus plays crucial role in enhancing T-cell function against cancer

T-cells, part of the immune system, can kill cancer cells. CAR-T cells are T-cells that have been modified in the lab to home in on proteins on the surface of an individual's cancer cells. CAR-T cells are custom-made for each patient.

Shikhar Mehrotra, Ph.D., co-leader of the Cancer Biology & Immunology Research Program at MUSC Hollings Cancer CenterThe whole tumor microenvironment is conducive for the tumor itself, but not for the other cells which are trying to get in there."

Using cell sorting technology at the Flow Cytometry & Cell Sorting Shared Resource at Hollings, the researchers sorted T-cells according to the amount of Golgi they contained. The top 30% were labeled Golgi-hi and the bottom 30% were labeled Golgi-lo.

"Right now, we're working on doing some validation studies in the Center for Cellular Therapy to potentially be able to start a clinical trial to see if that has a translational ability as well," Oberholtzer said.

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Medical University of South Carolina

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