“We were surprised by how sensitive cells were to small amounts and brief exposures to TNF. Our analysis may help drug companies solve problems with the regulation of immune response levels, and do it in a smart way.”
“You could think of the TNF molecule, which sounds the alarm, as a very weak radio transmitter. It moves very slowly as it carries its warning message to neighboring cells, so it is unable to send that message over long distances. However, we discovered that the cellular pathways that pick up this signal act like extremely sensitive radio receivers. They can pick up the alarm message from exposure to even a very small amount of TNF. This turns out to be a very smart strategy on the part of the cells.”
