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Comment by Eli_P | Hacker News Reader

Could that tech of re-engineering T-cells be a step to cure psoriasis? AFAIK psoriasis is caused by T-cells erroneously targeted to kill epidermis.

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With the current CAR-T technology, you’re “turning on” the T-cell so it attacks certain cell types. You only need a few of those cells as they can multiply within the body.

What you’re talking about is the opposite, turning the T cell “off”. You’d also need to do that to every T cell or alternatively, destroy every T cell and restart with a batch of new cells.

Very different problems.

Or program the T-cells to attack mesenchymal cells that are producing the defective ones. I'd wager that the process would still be much more difficult than targeting cancerous cells, and certainly be very complicated.

But, there's hope for other diseases, though the article is focused on cancer:

> Not only can this technology help revolutionize TCR-T cell therapies for cancer, but it will also be a powerful tool for discovering other immunological agents, including antibodies and CAR-T cells, and for elucidating new immunology and cancer biology at a depth not possible before.

I have an idea for curing psoriasis. It sounds really ridiculous but seeing eating local honey cured my pollen allergies I think it could be worth a try.

I am curious about your idea, do you mean that it would be enough to eat honey to cure psoriasis, or is it something else? Thanks!

I’m proposing eating that which your allergies are attacking. Your skin.

I guess you’d need to design some kind of exfoliator to get enough skin. I told you it sounds ridiculous.

It may sound ridiculous but it is an interesting idea. Normally an adaptive immune reaction has two phases, one where T-cells are aggressively deployed and another where it slows down (resolution phase). Many chronic diseases involve some kind of "immune vicious circle" with no resolution phase. T-cells are "educated" mainly in the thymus, if it was possible to alter the education mechanism, we could better manage auto-immune diseases. At least your suggestion is yummy food for thought, thanks!

And for good reason

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