CNIC’s study suggests that it may be possible to regulate the number and activity of these macrophages with drugs that modulate the nuclear receptor RXR.
A team at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), working in partnership with researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, has discovered a new molecular mechanism mediated by nuclear receptors that determines the identity and expansion of macrophages–one of the cell types that act as immune sentinels in the body.