{"id":11688,"date":"2026-03-18T19:56:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11688"},"modified":"2026-03-18T19:56:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:56:30","slug":"cancer-drug-protein-target-may-also-help-fight-influenza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/03\/18\/cancer-drug-protein-target-may-also-help-fight-influenza\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer drug protein target may also help fight influenza"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2026-03-cancer-drug-protein-influenza.html#goog_rewarded\">Medical Express<\/a> A protein already targeted by FDA-approved cancer drugs may also help the body fight influenza, according to new research from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX). Published in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/cell-reports\/fulltext\/S2211-1247(26)00017-3\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Cell Reports, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Cell Reports<\/em><\/a>, the study found that Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1), a protein best known for helping tumors evade immune attack, instead helped immunocompromised mice clear flu-infected lung cells and survive infection. The findings challenge long-standing assumptions about PD-L1&#8217;s role in the immune system. While cancer therapies work by blocking PD-L1 to boost immune attack on tumors, the new research suggests that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2022-04-immune.html?utm_source=embeddings&amp;utm_medium=related&amp;utm_campaign=internal\">enhancing PD-L1 signaling<\/a>&nbsp;may help the body control severe respiratory viral infections, especially in people with T cell immunodeficiencies such as those with HIV or immunosuppression after chemotherapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This discovery suggests that a pathway targeted in cancer could also be useful in infectious disease, but in the opposite way. Cancer therapies block PD-L1, whereas in flu, enhancing it may strengthen host defense,&#8221; said Silke Paust, a JAX professor and immunologist who directed the research.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Medical Express A protein already targeted by FDA-approved cancer drugs may also help the body fight influenza, according to new research from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX). Published in\u00a0Cell Reports, the study found that Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1), a protein best known for helping tumors evade immune attack, instead helped immunocompromised mice clear flu-infected lung cells [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-influenza","category-science-and-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11689,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11688\/revisions\/11689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}