Feature Channels: Immunology

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People with asthma are likely to have worse symptoms when they get the flu because they have weaker immune systems, new Southampton research has shown.

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Cabozantinib, an FDA-approved drug for patients with certain types of thyroid or kidney cancer, was able to eradicate invasive prostate cancers in mice by causing tumor cells to secrete factors that entice neutrophils – the first-responders of the immune system – to infiltrate the tumor. This novel approach, utilizing the innate immune system, produced near-complete clearance of invasive prostate cancers within 48 to 72 hours.

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In a new study in the journal Nature, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists report that a compound able to reverse the allegiance of innate immune system cells – turning them from tumor enablers into tumor opponents – caused breast tumors in mice to shrink and withdraw from distant metastases.

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Mayo Clinic researchers have found that an experimental drug, LCL161, stimulates the immune system, leading to tumor shrinkage in patients affected by multiple myeloma. The findings are published in Nature Medicine.

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Research by Rutgers University investigators – including a number from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey – has resulted in the development of small molecule inhibitors that block a protein involved in the development of some cancers. At focus are TAM receptors, which when overexpressed can make too many proteins leading to cancer development, drug resistance and overall poor patient survival.

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Study shows typically ‘mild’ respiratory virus can turn into deadly pneumonia in this vulnerable population, points to need for effective meds, better prevention

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Over the past few years, checkpoint blockade immunotherapies have revolutionized cancer treatment and helped many patients who were previously considered untreatable. Now, discoveries made by two Cancer Research Institute scientists could help make these and other immunotherapies even more transformative for patients.

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UCLA scientists pioneered an approach to observe in real time what excites T cells at the nanoscale, pinpointed the pathway that controls immune response and identified drugs that could equip scientists with the ability to manipulate the immune system and control disease.

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University of California, Irvine researchers have identified a specific mutation that allows melanoma tumor cells to remain undetected by the immune system.

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Computer model shows what happens at the molecular level during severe allergic reactions to abacavir, a common HIV drug

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A new international study co-led by a Rush University Medical Center researcher suggests that a drug starting through the pipeline could ameliorate or even eliminate the symptoms in most sufferers.

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The NCCN Oncology Research Program has awarded grants for its first-ever multi-industry collaborative project, soliciting investigator-initiated proposals to research the effectiveness of Boehringer Ingelheim’s afatinib in combination with other drugs to treat lung and head and neck cancers.

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A chemical found in tumors may help stop tumor growth, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago report that increasing expression of a chemical cytokine called LIGHT in mice with colon cancer activated the immune system’s T-cells and caused primary tumors and metastatic tumors in the liver to shrink.

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It’s what’s missing in the tumor genome, not what’s mutated, that thwarts treatment of metastatic melanoma with immune checkpoint blockade drugs, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in Science Translational Medicine.

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As we head into allergy season, you may feel less likely to grab a hanky and sneeze. That’s because new University of Florida research shows a probiotic combination might help reduce hay fever symptoms, if it’s taken during allergy season.

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Anyone who uses an employee badge to enter a building may understand how a protein called ENL opens new possibilities for treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a fast-growing cancer of bone marrow and blood cells and the second most common type of leukemia in children and adults.

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A new study has identified a previously undescribed role for a type of unconventional T cell with the potential to be used in the development of new therapies for infection and cancer.

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Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common form of liver cancer, but treatment options are limited and many patients are diagnosed in late stages when the disease can’t be treated. Now, University of Missouri School of Medicine researchers have developed a new treatment that combines chemotherapy and immunotherapy to significantly slow tumor growth in mice. The researchers believe that with more research, the strategy could be translated to benefit patients with the disease.

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Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have identified a new regulator of the innate immune response—the immediate, natural immune response to foreign invaders. The study, published recently in Nature Microbiology, suggests that therapeutics that modulate the regulator—an immune checkpoint—may represent the next generation of antiviral drugs, vaccine adjuvants, cancer immunotherapies, and treatments for autoimmune disease.

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A new discovery by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle makes an important step in identifying which specific T cells within the diverse army of a person’s immune system are best suited to fight cancer. The findings will be published February 24 in Science Immunology.

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Scientists at The Wistar Institute and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. have devised a novel DNA vaccine approach through molecular design to improve the immune responses elicited against one of the most important cancer antigen targets.

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The second annual ACTRIMS Forum gets underway today. This year, the forum was preceded by the Neurology Resident Summit in Neuroimmunology, which drew 47 residents from the United States and Canada.

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Wistar scientists have shown an anti-diabetic drug can inhibit the growth of melanoma in older patients by activating an anti-aging gene that in turn inhibits a protein involved in metastatic progression and resistance to targeted therapies for the disease.

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Story about the first patient enrolled in the new national phase I trial studying the side effects and best dose and schedule of pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, when given together with chemotherapy and radiation therapy following surgery for very high risk head and neck cancer. Pembrolizumab is one of the first immunotherapy drugs.

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University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers screened 10,000 colonies of bacteria found on the epidermis to determine how many had antimicrobial properties and at what rate these are found on healthy and non-healthy skin. In a paper published in Science Translation Medicine, the team reports isolating and growing good bacteria that produce antimicrobial peptides and successfully transplanting it to treat patients with the most common type of eczema, known as atopic dermatitis.

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MSK researchers used the genome-editing tool CRISPR to create more potent chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that don't tire as easily when attacking cancer cells. The unexpected findings were published in the journal Nature on February 22 and underscore the potential of genome editing to advance immunotherapy for cancer.

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Two drugs used to treat asthma and allergies may offer a way to prevent a form of pneumonia that can kill up to 40 percent of people who contract it, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have found.

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Melanoma patients’ response to a major form of immunotherapy is associated with the diversity and makeup of trillions of potential allies and enemies found in the digestive tract, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report at the ASCO-Society for Immunotherapy in Cancer meeting in Orlando.

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Scientists at the University of Washington have discovered that macrophages, a common type of cell in the vertebrate immune system, can transmit messages between non-immune cells. Their paper, published online Feb. 16 in the journal Science, is the first reported instance of macrophages relaying messages over a long distance between non-immune cells.

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Harvard Medical School researchers have successfully “listened in” on the crosstalk between gut microbes and the immune system.

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The 2017 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium, co-sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), will feature advances in surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and novel molecular biologic therapies for thoracic malignancies such as lung cancer.

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An analysis of a patient’s deadly brain tumor helped doctors at Smilow Cancer Hospital identify new emerging mutations and keep a 55-year old woman alive for more than five years, researchers report in the journal Genome Medicine.

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Mayo Clinic and University of Washington researchers have discovered a new culture method that unlocks the natural fighter function of immune T cells when they are passing through the bloodstream. This allows T cell armies to be raised directly from blood that naturally recognize and target proteins that are present on most human cancers. The results are published in the Feb. 14 issue of Oncotarget.

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For hundreds of millions of years, ticks have survived on Earth by sucking blood from their victims for days, often leaving behind terrible diseases as a thank-you note. But no one has ever looked at why ticks, themselves, are able to survive while harboring bacteria, viruses and parasites. Now, for the first time, scientists have decoded how the ingenious tick immune system fights a myriad of microbes.

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New research has identified a previously unknown mechanism involved in the immune response of lupus patients that could provide an alternative therapy target for the estimated 1.5 million Americans and five million-plus people worldwide suffering from this disease.

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Women have claimed for years that their bodies react differently whether they’re pregnant with a boy or girl. Now evidence, published by Ohio State University researchers shows the sex of a baby is associated with pregnant women’s immune responses.

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Immunotherapy has been a game changer for the oncology field, but typical models used to assess the value of cancer treatments don’t take into account the unique characteristics of this therapy, according to experts at the 2016 annual meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC).

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Researchers from Mayo Clinic have quantified the numbers of various types of immune cells associated with the risk of developing breast cancer. The findings are published in a study in Clinical Cancer Research.

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Physicians at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report they have successfully treated 16 patients with a rare and lethal form of bone marrow failure called severe aplastic anemia using partially matched bone marrow transplants followed by two high doses of a common chemotherapy drug.

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UCLA scientists have discovered that people with cancers containing genetic mutations JAK1 or JAK2, which are known to prevent tumors from recognizing or receiving signals from T cells to stop growing, will have little or no benefit from the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab. This early-stage research has allowed them to determine for the first time why some people with advanced melanoma or advanced colon cancer will not respond to pembrolizumab, an anti-PD-1 treatment.

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Princess Margaret Cancer Centre scientists have discovered a distinct cell population in tumours that inhibits the body’s immune response to fight cancer.

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• New Roswell Park spinoff company will develop next-generation cancer immunotherapies • Novel approach combines unique adoptive T cell therapy with genetically engineered stem cell therapy • Clinical trial planned in ovarian, pancreatic, lung, prostate and other hard-to-treat cancers

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In a new study, Yale Cancer Center researchers identified a novel genetic defect that prevents brain tumor cells from repairing damaged DNA.

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Cytokines are small proteins in the immune system that act as chemical messengers between cells. Prior research suggests that pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines are dysfunctional during alcohol dependence and may contribute to the progression from healthy to problem drinking. This study compared social and non-dependent problem drinkers on the impact of alcohol-related changes in the body’s immune response to stress, alcohol-cue induced craving and anxiety, motivation to drink, and alcohol consumption.

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A clinical trial at Sanford Health is studying if an immunotherapy drug developed by Merck might be able to treat certain patients with advanced esophageal cancer. The Merck Keynote 181 trial is now open at Sanford.

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Three nonprofits partner to create powerful database that will aim to improve immunotherapy for many types of cancer.

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After surgery to remove a cancerous tumor – even if the surgery is considered “successful” – it’s nearly impossible to ensure that all microtumors have been removed from the surgical site. Cancer recurrence is always a major concern. Meanwhile, tiny blood cells called platelets rush in to start the post-surgical healing process. What if those platelets could carry anti-cancer drugs to wipe out those microtumors? UNC and NC State scientists have developed a way to do just that, and they have shown success in animal studies, published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering.