Nanowires create elite warriors to enhance T cell therapy

Researchers from Georgia Tech have developed a way to improve a type of immunotherapy, called adoptive T-cell therapy, that is used to fight infections or cancer. In adoptive T-cell therapy, a patient's T-cells – a type of white blood cell that is part of the body's immune system – are extracted and modified in a lab and then infused back into the body, so they can seek and destroy infection or cancer cells. The new approach involves using nanowires to deliver therapeutic microRNAs to T-cells. A microRNA is a molecule that when used as a therapeutic, works like a volume knob for genes, turning their activity up or down to keep infection and cancer in check.