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Expanding a lymph node, boosting a vaccine - EurekAlert


For the first time, researchers from the&nbsp;Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University,&nbsp;Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences&nbsp;(SEAS), and&nbsp;Genentech<u>, a member of the Roche Group,</u>&nbsp;found a way to enhance and extend LN expansion, and study how this phenomenon affects both the immune system and efficacy of vaccinations against tumors. While the oversized LNs maintained a normal tissue organization, they displayed altered&nbsp;mechanical features&nbsp;and hosted higher numbers of various immune cell types that commonly are involved in immune responses against pathogens and cancers. Importantly, &ldquo;jump-starting&rdquo; lymph node expansion prior to administering a traditional vaccine against a melanoma-specific model antigen led to more effective and sustained anti-tumor responses in mice.&nbsp;

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