Scientists solve mystery of immune cells in the liver

In a discovery that could aid malaria vaccine research, scientists led by The Australian National University (ANU) have tracked immune cells and discovered a key molecule that helps them to find and kill microbes that infect the liver such as malaria. Malaria is a disease spread by mosquitoes that kills around 500,000 people every year, mainly in tropical countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the South Pacific. Lead researcher Hayley McNamara, a PhD scholar from The John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) at ANU, said the findings helped answer a mystery about the work of T-cells, which are a type of immune cell that look for infection throughout the body. "We know T-cells can protect against most infections, what we still don't fully understand is how these T-cells find the rare cells infected with viruses or parasites like malaria - a needle in a haystack problem if you like,"  Ms McNamara said. "In our research we've been able to see that some of the T-cells are specialists, able to patrol the liver hunting down infections like malaria parasites. "We've found that without a key molecule called LFA-1, that cells don't work - they can't move quickly and can't kill malaria parasites effectively." ANU Associate Professor Ian Cockburn said that because the T-cells were so effective at finding malaria parasites they could be a component of future vaccines. "What we want to do is understand how to make a vaccine that induces these types of immune cells.