Mast cell mobilisation of effective immune responses

Mast cells are a type of immune cell found throughout the body, but particularly common in the skin, lungs and intestines. They are most widely studied in allergic disease where they release substances, that are responsible for many allergy symptoms. However, there is also a "good side" to mast cells, they work to help protect the body from infection and tumors by responding to substances released during infection or around tumors and mobilizing many other other parts of the immune system, recruiting immune cells to the site of the problem. In this context, they function as part of an "alarm system" for detecting problems that require an immune response. We are proposing to study three aspects of this mast cell alarm response. 1. the mast cell's production of proteins called interferons that help increase immune activity against viruses and certain types of bacteria. 2. The mast cells ability to activate immune cells, known as "natural killer cells to increase their ability to fight cancer 3. The ability of mast cells to change the type of local immune and inflammatory response that takes place at tumor sites or sites of mucosal infection as an approach to therapy. Through these studies we aim to identify new ways to improve the immune response that could be used as treatments against infections and tumors by targeting mast cell functions.