Feature Channels: Immunology

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In a report of a proof-of-principle study of patients with colon and other cancers for whom standard therapies failed, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say that mistakes in so-called mismatch repair genes, first identified by Johns Hopkins and other scientists two decades ago, may accurately predict who will respond to certain immunotherapy drugs known as PD-1 inhibitors.

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A team of researchers led by Ludwig Cancer Research investigator Luis Diaz has identified a genetic malfunction that predicts the effectiveness of response to a groundbreaking immunotherapy. The results of their Phase 2 clinical trial reveal that, regardless of its tissue of origin, tumors whose cells are deficient in repairing mismatched DNA sequences—and so preventing mutations—are far more susceptible to the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab than those that retain this ability. Their findings were announced today at the American Society for Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and will be published online May 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

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Scientists have found that stage IIIb to IV melanoma patients treated with a modified cold sore (herpes) virus had improved survival. The results of the findings were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: genetics, cancer, nanotech, elderly care, marketing research, energy, children's health, and immunology.

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Warring armies use a variety of tactics, including use of a decoy force that occupies the defenders while an unseen force launches a separate attack that the defenders fail to notice. A new study suggests that the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) may employ similar tactics to distract the body's natural defenses.

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Ludwig Cancer Research previewed today the new findings that will be presented by Ludwig scientists at this year’s American Society for Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago, Ill., May 29 – June 2. Ludwig researchers will present recent data from early and late stage clinical trials and participate in a number of plenary and educational sessions.

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MIT researchers have shown that they can use a microfluidic cell-squeezing device to introduce specific antigens inside the immune system’s B cells, providing a new approach to developing and implementing antigen-presenting cell vaccines.

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An existing anti-stroke drug is an effective treatment for middle-ear infections, showing the ability to suppress mucus overproduction, improve bacterial clearance and reduce hearing loss, according to researchers at Georgia State University and the University of Rochester.

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An important link between the human body clock and the immune system has relevance for better understanding inflammatory and infectious diseases, discovered collaborators. They report how a critical white blood cell, when exposed to bacteria, makes the biological clock inside the macrophage stop, allowing it to become inflamed.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: social media trends, lyme disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV, lasers, Hubble, neurology, and the seafood industry.

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A new study led by researchers at the University of Minnesota has found a three-way link among antibiotic use in infants, changes in the gut bacteria, and disease later in life.

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Interferon proteins are normally considered virus-fighters, but scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found evidence that one of them, interferon beta, has an immune-suppressing effect that can help some viruses establish persistent infections.

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Joslin researchers have uncovered the action of a gene that regulates the education of T cells, providing insight into how and why the immune system begins mistaking the body’s own tissues for targets.

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Scientists at The University of Manchester have made an important discovery about an immune cell which is already being used in immunotherapy to treat diseases such as type I diabetes.

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Scientists have identified a protein on the surface of human red blood cells that serves as an essential entry point for invasion by the malaria parasite. This discovery opens up a promising new avenue for the development of therapies to treat and prevent malaria.

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With the threat of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens growing, new ideas to treat infections are sorely needed. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report preliminary success testing an entirely novel approach — tagging bacteria with a molecular “homing beacon” that attracts pre-existing antibodies to attack the pathogens.

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the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a bit like a hermetically sealed tin can no one has yet been able to break open, the good news is that researchers have identified a way to use a “can opener” to force the virus to open up and to expose its vulnerable parts, allowing the immune system cells to then kill the infected cells.

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Researchers discover the role of a major cytokine in multiple sclerosis that could be a target for new therapy against the disease.

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Researchers at the University of Louisville have detailed a critical connection associated with a major environmental cause of silicosis and a form of lung cancer. Their study is reported in today’s Nature Communications.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: diet supplements and cancer risk (3 days on top 10 list), oral mucositis in cancer treatment, updated breast cancer screening guidelines, climate change, materials science, asthma, mental health and gun violence, genetics and immunology, and multiple sclerosis treatment.

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New research published in Nature has found several drugs could lead to new treatment options for multiple sclerosis, including two drugs that effectively treat MS at the source, in vivo.

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Researchers have identified a protein that offers a new focus for developing targeted therapies to tame the severe inflammation associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), colitis and other autoimmune disorders. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists led the study which appears today in the scientific journal Immunity.

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New research from the Monell Center reveals that tumor necrosis factor (TNF), an immune system regulatory protein that promotes inflammation, also helps regulate sensitivity to bitter taste. The finding may explain taste abnormalities and decreased food intake associated with infections, autoimmune disorders, and chronic inflammatory diseases.

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Research teams led by Edward Yu of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory have described the structure of two closely related protein pumps that allow bacteria to resist certain medications.

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Early data in a preliminary human study show that an experimental immune system drug is generally safe and well tolerated in women with metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer, a persistently difficult form of the disease to treat.

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A Phase 2 clinical trial led by Ludwig Harvard’s Stephen Hodi and Ludwig Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK)’s Jedd Wolchok has found that the combination of two immunotherapies for first-line treatment of advanced melanoma induces better responses and far longer progression-free survival than giving one of those drugs alone. Further, the combination was effective in the portion of melanoma patients—the majority—who currently have few effective treatment options. The results of the trial, which compared a combination of checkpoint inhibitors ipilimumab and nivolumab against ipilimumab alone in previously untreated patients, were presented today at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research and have been simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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The University of New Mexico Cancer Center enrolled its first patient in a phase 3 clinical trial that uses a person’s own kidney cancer cells to make a vaccine tailored to kill those cells.

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The gut bacteria Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG has a reputation as a helpful microbe. Now, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have come up with an explanation for why. It appears that the bacteria may boost the activity of other gut microbes.

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Recently, researchers at Fudan University's Institute of Biomedical Sciences in Shanghai developed a lab-on-a-chip device that can rapidly diagnose cryptosporidium infections from just a finger prick -- potentially bringing point-of-care diagnosis to at-risk areas in rural China in order to improve treatment outcomes.

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A new drug with the potential to reverse resistance to immunotherapy has been developed by scientists at the University of Southampton. It has shown great promise in pre-clinical models and will be available to patients with certain leukaemias and non-Hodgkin lymphomas in clinical trials later this year.

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The prospect of combining genomically targeted therapies with drugs that free the immune system to attack cancer suggests “we are finally poised to deliver curative therapies to cancer patients,” researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center note in a review in the April 9 edition of Cell.

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Researchers found enhanced rather than suppressed immune function in animals with increased biodiversity. Publishing online in the April 8, 2015, issue of PLOS ONE, the findings add to the growing understanding of the complex environment in the digestive tract and its role in maintaining health.

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Abdominal pain, fever and unexplained bleeding – which are commonly believed to indicate infection with the Ebola virus — are not significantly predictive of the disease, according to the results of a study examining a new Ebola Prediction Score published online Friday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Derivation and Internal Validation of the Ebola Prediction Score for Risk Stratification of Patients with Suspected Ebola Virus Disease") http://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644(15)00217-6/fulltext.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: nanotech treating cancer, immunology, autism, patient monitoring, research ethics, lingering effects of dispersant in Gulf of Mexico, wildlife conservation.

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A key protein previously implicated in Lou Gehrig’s disease and other neurological diseases plays an important role in the response to viral infection

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The study offers new insight into the link between neurodegenerative disorders and inflammation, and provides a framework to explore more fully the possibility that viral infection may lead to onset of these diseases.

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In a new study, researchers report progress toward perfecting a radical new method of producing vaccines using genetically modified corn. The approach could lead to an oral hepatitis B vaccine that requires no refrigeration and costs less than $1 per dose to manufacture.

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An Ebola whole virus vaccine, constructed using a novel experimental platform, has been shown to effectively protect monkeys exposed to the often fatal virus. The vaccine, described today (March 26, 2015) in the journal Science, was developed by a group led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a University of Wisconsin-Madison expert on avian influenza, Ebola and other viruses of medical importance.

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Results of a new study by UCLA researchers has found that a groundbreaking new triple combination therapy shows promising signs of more effectively controlling advanced melanoma than previous BRAF + MEK inhibitor or BRAF inhibitor + immunotherapy combos alone, and with increased immune response and fewer side effects.

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Salk researchers have been able to grow patient-derived, healthy cells in the lab, coming a step closer to treating fatal blood disorders

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An innovative approach using a tetanus booster to prime the immune system enhances the effect of a vaccine therapy for lethal brain tumors, dramatically improving patient survival, according to a study led by Duke Cancer Institute researchers.

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Treating metastatic melanoma with a triple threat—including radiation therapy and two immunotherapies that target the CTLA4 and PD-1 pathways—could elicit an optimal response in more patients, one that will boost the immune system’s attack on the disease, suggests a new study from a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center published today in Nature.

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Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have designed a new type of vaccine that could be the first-ever for preventing genital herpes—one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, affecting 500 million people worldwide. Using a counterintuitive approach, researchers were able to prevent both infections caused by herpes simplex virus type 2, which causes genital herpes. Findings from the research, conducted in mice, were published today in the online journal eLife.

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Genomics researchers analyzing common variable immunodeficiency disease (CVID) in children have discovered links to a gene crucial to the body’s defense against infections. The finding may represent an inviting target for drug treatment.

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Henry Ford Hospital researchers say that breastfeeding and other factors influence a baby’s immune system development and susceptibility to allergies and asthma by what’s in their gut.

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Research led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists has identified a potential target in the quest to develop a more effective treatment for leishmaniasis, a parasitic tropical disease that kills thousands and sickens more than 1 million people worldwide each year. The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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A collaboration between Clarkson University and the Trudeau Institute aims to improve the fight against bacterial infections through immunoengineering.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a common signaling mechanism to produce interferon − one of the main proteins used to signal the immune system when the body needs to defend itself against a virus, tumor, or other diseases.

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A short nap can help relieve stress and bolster the immune systems of men who slept only two hours the previous night, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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Despite the prevalence of Sjögren’s syndrome – an autoimmune disease most commonly known for causing dry eyes and mouth - a lack of knowledge about how the condition starts has stalled the development of new treatments. Researchers have now developed a specialized animal model of Sjögren’s that engrafts human cells into mice, allowing scientists to track various factors that affect disease development and discover potential new therapies.