How immune cells communicate to fight disease and cancer 

By measuring interactions between cells, the method offers insights into how the human body fights viral infections, how malfunctions can lead to autoimmune diseases and why immunotherapies work for some people but not others.    

A healthy immune system is trained to detect and destroy infections and cancer cells. This defense is based on a complex communication system at cellular level, in which different immune cells each perform a specialized task: Recognizing infectious agents, alerting other immune cells, and eliminating harmful cells or pathogens. Problems arise when communication between different cell types is disrupted, potentially leading to a variety of diseases.  

For example, cancer cells often develop strategies to specifically disrupt or circumvent the exchange of information in the immune system - this allows them to evade immune surveillance and grow unhindered. “Modern immunotherapies have fundamentally changed the treatment of certain types of cancer by restoring or specifically strengthening communication between immune cells,” explains Prof. Simon Haas, one of the leaders of the study.  

PD Dr. Dr. Daniel Hübschmann, also head of the study, adds: “However, not all patients respond equally well to these therapies and reliable methods for predicting which patients will benefit most are still lacking.”   

Decoding immune cell communication for personalized cancer therapies    

Scientists have now developed a technology that overcomes many of these hurdles through a better understanding of immune cell communication. With this method, millions of cell-cell interactions can be measured quickly and cost-effectively, both in research laboratories and in the clinic.   

This innovative project was made possible by close interdisciplinary cooperation across the traditional boundaries of medicine, computer science and biosciences - largely driven by the doctoral students Dominik Vonficht, Lea Jopp-Saile, Schayan Yousefian and Viktoria Flore. 

The scientists are using the newly developed technology to investigate the behavior and kinetics of immunotherapies and to gain insights into how these therapies work at the level of cell-cell interactions. They were able to show that the approach enables the prediction of individual therapy responses and can thus create a central basis for personalized immunotherapies and targeted therapy decisions.   

In addition, the researchers were able to use their new technology to visualize, in high resolution, how cells of the immune system interact with each other during viral infections and autoimmune diseases. The results allow them to develop dynamic maps of immune cell networks, illustrating for the first time how the immune defense is coordinated in different tissues.   

Together with clinical partners, the team is now working on translating these findings from research into practice, for example to better predict treatment success and utilize immunotherapies in a more personalized manner.   

The study was published in Nature Methods.