For decades, the central concept of cell-to-cell communication has been receptor-mediated signal transduction — a molecule binding to a receptor on the cell surface to trigger a response. Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital now report the discovery of a new, receptor-free means of signal transduction, upending that long-held assumption.
The newly identified mechanism was found in inflammatory cell signaling. According to the researchers, this receptor-free pathway represents a previously unknown way cells can interact with each other, potentially explaining aspects of inflammation that receptor-based models could not account for.
The finding could open the door to autoimmune disease treatments. If inflammatory signals can be transmitted without receptors, targeting this alternative pathway may offer a new therapeutic strategy for conditions where receptor-based approaches have fallen short.