{"id":38368,"date":"2026-07-02T14:36:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T08:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=38368"},"modified":"2026-07-02T14:37:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T08:52:38","slug":"stem-t-cells-hold-key-to-immune-systems-staying-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/stem-t-cells-hold-key-to-immune-systems-staying-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Stem T Cells Hold Key to Immune System\u2019s Staying Power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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deepai generated image<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

T cells are the immune system\u2019s frontline fighters, hunting down and destroying diseased cells. But in chronic battles \u2014 against viruses, cancer or autoimmune disorders \u2014 the body needs a steady supply of fresh troops. How those reinforcements are generated has long been unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Weill Cornell Medicine say they have found the answer: a rare subset of \u201cstem T cells\u201d that continuously replenish the immune arsenal. Their study, published July 1 in Cell<\/em><\/a>, identifies a protein called LEF1 as central to this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LEF1 as a Switch<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The team showed in laboratory models that LEF1-positive stem T cells are critical for sustaining immunity. Boosting these cells helped overcome T cell exhaustion in chronic viral infection. Removing them, by contrast, curbed overactive immune responses in type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTurn it up, and you get more stem cells. Remove it, and the stem cell pool disappears,\u201d said senior author Andrea Schietinger, PhD, of MSK\u2019s Sloan Kettering Institute. \u201cWhich of those is desirable depends on the disease context.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shared Mechanism Across Diseases<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The researchers compared stem T cells from autoimmune diabetes and chronic viral infection. Despite the diseases\u2019 differences, the cells clustered together molecularly, driven by LEF1. They identified 117 genes with shared activity patterns, suggesting a common biological playbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis points to a fundamental mechanism by which the immune system sustains stem T cells under chronic stress,\u201d said Doron Betel, PhD, of Weill Cornell Medicine. \u201cIt opens the possibility of new therapeutic strategies across a broad range of conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location Matters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Like stem cells in the gut or bone marrow, immune stem T cells depend on specialized niches. Disrupting signals that guide them to these locations \u2014 through integrins or Notch pathways \u2014 caused the stem T cell pool to collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStemness isn\u2019t just about what\u2019s inside the cell,\u201d Schietinger said. \u201cIt\u2019s also about where the cell lives and what signals it receives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toward New Therapies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The findings highlight how basic science can inform treatment. In autoimmune disease, blocking stem T cells could prevent attacks on healthy tissue. In cancer or chronic infection, boosting them could sustain the immune response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnderstanding how T cells sustain themselves \u2014 and how their environment shapes them \u2014 is fundamental to understanding cancer,\u201d Schietinger said. \u201cEngineering niches where cancer-fighting stem T cells can thrive is at the heart of our research now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

T cells are the immune system\u2019s frontline fighters, hunting down and destroying diseased cells. But in chronic battles \u2014 against viruses, cancer or autoimmune disorders \u2014 the body needs a steady supply of fresh troops. How those reinforcements are generated has long been unclear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-health"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells.jpg",768,576,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-675x506.jpg",675,506,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells.jpg",750,563,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells.jpg",750,563,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells.jpg",768,576,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells.jpg",768,576,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells.jpg",768,576,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-768x570.jpg",768,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-600x576.jpg",600,576,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-600x576.jpg",600,576,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-760x490.jpg",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-640x576.jpg",640,576,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tcells-150x113.jpg",150,113,true]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a> Health<\/a>","tag_info":"Health","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38368"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38371,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38368\/revisions\/38371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}