Immune Responses to Danger Signals
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding Immune Responses to Danger Signals
IRAS ID
289809
Contact name
Gloria Lopez-Castejon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 7 months, 9 days
Research summary
Inflammation is the response of the body to danger. Danger signals can be quite different and divided in pathogenic, for example bacteria, and non-pathogenic, for instance ATP that accumulates outside the cells after these have been injured. When immune cells such as macrophages sense these danger signals, they produce pro-inflammatory substances called interleukins and Interferons. These molecules act as messengers that inform other cells from the immune system that something is wrong and that it has to be removed or repaired to restore health.
If the inflammatory response does not work properly, we end up with a situation where immune cells try to remove a danger and a threat that does not exist, and instead of achieveing helth they cause damage and disease. This is why inflammation is a very important component of diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's, atherosclerosis, diabetes, cancer and Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome (AGS).
In this study we will investigate the processes by which macrophages, and other immune cells, recognise danger signals and respond to them to produce interleukins or interferons that contribute to inflammation. For this we will obtain blood collected from healthy donors that donated to NHS Blood and Transplant. We will then obtain immune cells from this blood. We will then expose these cells to danger signals, such as extracellular ATP (Adenosin TriPhosphate), a chemical that accumulates outside the cells after injury, and investigate how they respond to such threat. With this we expect to better understand the processes by which immune cells initiate inflammation to better identify processes that can go wrong during disease.
REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/PR/0526
Date of REC Opinion
16 Apr 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion