Different genetic make-up can impact on the activity of the immune system and our ability to fight cancer.
Proteins are made up of thousands of smaller units called amino acids, which are attached to one another in long chains.
Proteins do most of the work in cells and are required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body's tissues and organs.
A protein called ULBP6 leads to the removal of damaged cells. There are two types of this protein found in different people.
The ULBP6 protein is found on the surface of damaged cells, including several types of cancer cells, and acts as a signal to white cells in our immune system that the damaged cell should be killed.
There are two major types of protein in the population and people who inherit a certain subtype have been shown to have a poor outcome after stem cell transplantation, a procedure used to treat leukemia, which is commonly referred to as bone marrow treatment.
The two types of ULBP6 differ only by two amino acids out of a total of around 180 and it has important influence on patient outcomes. One form of ULBP6
forms a very strong bond indeed with its receptor NKG2D on the immune system.
This shows why transplants work less well in some people, which is an important step on the path to developing better transplant therapy for more people living with blood cancer.
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