The human body needs to be able to kill any harmful pathogens that invade it. It does this by using specific cells called immune cells to detect the pathogen and destroy it. An example of an immune cell is a T-cell. In the case of cancer, a pathogen is not invading the body, but the body is still under attack from its own mutated cells. As there is no pathogen for the immune cells to detect, this makes it harder for the immune system to identify the cancerous tumour cells and kill them. Cancer cells grow at a very fast rate, unlike normal cells. Some T-cells can detect and attack cancerous tumours, but in order to survive, some tumours are able to escape detection. They do this by changing the environment surrounding the tumour. In particular, the tumour cells can alter the acidity of the environment surrounding it, causing a more acidic pH than what is found in non-cancerous tissue. This happens because the cancer cells are growing so fast they use up all the available nutrients and release acidic factors, such as lactate into the surrounding environment. This acidity can decrease the ability of the T-cell to carry out their function properly, allowing the tumour to continue to grow. In this project, I will examine how the activation and function of T-cells are affected by acidic conditions, which will provide important information on the ability of T cells to function within tumour tissue.
