Tips for Protection

These blue squiggles are the chromosomes of a mouse immune cell (a T cell to be exact) and the telomeres – the repetitive DNA sequences at the tips of the chromosomes – are highlighted in green. Telomeres are a good indicator of cell health, with their degradation and loss indicating a deterioration of cellular function. DNA-damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS) can lead to such telomere degradation and, unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens to T cells within a tumour, where stressful ROS-inducing stimuli such as low oxygen and high acidity are rife. Because T cells can recognise and destroy cancer cells, maintaining their function is critical. Importantly, researchers have shown that delivering a telomere-targeted antioxidant to T cells can prevent their dysfunction. Furthermore, when such telomere-protected T cells were infused into mice with melanoma, the animal’s tumours were smaller than those of control mice and their survival improved.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image from work by Dayana B. Rivadeneira and colleagues
• Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Immunity, October 2025