T cells burn out just a few hours after encountering cancer tumors (arstechnica.com)

submitted 11 months ago by Synecdoche@feddit.de to c/science@beehaw.org

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[-] LimitedDuck@septic.win 14 points 11 months ago

Isn't this a strange article title? The whole point of it is to show T cells don't actually get "burned out" at all. And imo it's not like the real reason is uninteresting.

Why dress the article in the exact thing it's refuting?

[-] Hirom@beehaw.org 4 points 11 months ago

It's a common pattern with headlines. When I see this I assume the headline was modified for clickbait sake, by an editor or someone who didn't write the article. And it probably make the author cringe.

[-] Griseowulfin@beehaw.org 2 points 11 months ago

I mean it read to me like they were saying that cytotoxic T cells became permanently dysfunctional (the term “exhausted” is used in the paper this news article is about) when encountering cancer cells. I’m not sure I see why the title is incorrect.

[-] LimitedDuck@septic.win 3 points 11 months ago

IMO the title is incorrect because the common interpretation of getting "burned out" is that of the same individuals of a population losing effectiveness after working hard. The article even likens the term "exhausted" the same interpretation of the phrase:

Altogether, our research suggests that T cells in tumors are not necessarily working hard and getting exhausted. Rather, they are blocked right from the start.

This same quote describes the truth of the phenomenon where it's not individuals getting "exhausted", but cellular signalling permanently altering the expression of T cells to make them less and less effective.

A more correct title would be something like: