Blocking RNA 'cleanup' may expose hidden cancer antigens, boosting immunotherapy

MedicalXpress | 四月 08, 2026

A new method of making cancer cells more visible to the immune system could improve how well immunotherapy works against a range of different tumors, potentially leading to more effective treatment for patients, according to a new study led by a team of UCL researchers. The study, published in Immunity, focuses on a cellular process called nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD), which acts as a quality-control system inside cells. Its job is to detect and destroy genetic messages—known as RNA—that are faulty and could otherwise produce broken or potentially harmful proteins that can damage cells or contribute to disease.