Immune System Reprogramming: Small Molecule Discovery Opens a New Approach to Fighting Disease

Researchers have identified steroids and other small molecules that can boost immune responses by training innate immune cells, offering new possibilities for disease treatment and vaccine enhancement.
Vaccines provide a front-line defense against dangerous viruses, training adaptive immune cells to identify and fight specific pathogens.

But innate immune cells — the first responders to any bodily invader — have no such specific long-term memory. Still, scientists have found that they can reprogram these cells to be even better at their jobs, potentially fighting off seasonal scourges like the common cold or even new viral diseases for which vaccines have not yet been developed.

A University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) team has found several small molecule candidates that induce this trained immunity without the potential side effects of other methods.