Feature Channels: Immunology

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Reporting in a new study published online this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers under the Botswana-UPenn Partnership at the University of Pennsylvania, including Shruthi Ravimohan, PhD, a research associate in the division of Infectious Diseases at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, and Gregory P. Bisson, MD, MSCE, an assistant professor in the division of Infectious Diseases, have identified immune biomarkers in HIV/TB patients before they begin ART that could help distinguish who goes on to develop IRIS or die after treatment.

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In the midst of one the worst overall influenza seasons, a Mississippi State researcher is part of an international effort to develop next season’s vaccines.

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Inserting a specific strain of bacteria into the microenvironment of aggressive ovarian cancer transforms the behavior of tumor cells from suppression to immunostimulation, researchers at Norris Cotton Cancer Center and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth have found.

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Researchers find clues for reducing infections after bone marrow transplantation for leukemia and lymphoma.

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Scientists at the University of Utah and the University of Georgia have uncovered a pharmacological target that could enable development of novel drugs against antibiotic-resistant pathogens, including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and other infectious Gram-positive organisms such as Listeria and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The target was revealed upon discovery of a Gram-positive bacteria-specific pathway for making heme, an essential iron-carrying molecule. The findings were reported in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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A new study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) helps explain how booster shots prompt immune “memory” to improve, an important step toward the development of more effective, longer-lasting vaccines.

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UC San Diego researchers say they can predict the spread of flu a week into the future with as much accuracy as Google Flu Trends can display levels of infection right now.

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To better understand PLA2 enzymes and help drive therapeutic drug development, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine developed 3D computer models that show exactly how two PLA2 enzymes extract their substrates from cellular membranes. The new tool is described in a paper published online the week of Jan. 26 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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1.4 million Americans suffer from uncomfortable abdominal cramping and diarrhea that come with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The condition is associated with an imbalance among the thousands of species of “good” bacteria that inhabit the gut. A University of Utah study published on Jan. 22 in Cell Host and Microbe demonstrates that a component of the immune system, MyD88, coordinates a host immune response that promotes a healthy colony of good bacteria, and digestive health.

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In a discovery that could dramatically affect the treatment of brain and spinal cord injuries, researchers have identified a previously unknown, beneficial immune response that occurs after injury to the central nervous system.

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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with collaborators in Korea and Scotland, have identified a novel signaling pathway critical to the immune response of cells associated with the initiation of allergic asthma. The discovery, they say, could point the way to new therapies that suppress the inflammatory allergic response, offering potential relief to millions of Americans with the chronic lung condition and potentially other allergic diseases.

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A group of white blood cells known as B cells, which play a key role in the human immune response, need a protein-targeting signal called M6P in order to proliferate, differentiate, and present immune cell–activating antigens.

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Rift Valley Fever, a mosquito-borne disease, can devastate a sheep herd causing 90 percent mortality in lambs and 100 percent abortion rates in pregnant ewes. Current vaccines either don’t provide long-term immunity or cause spontaneous abortions in pregnant ewes. Medgene Labs is developing a new vaccine that is proving to be both safe and effective.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have discovered that a protein widely known for suppressing tumor formation also helps prevent autoimmune diseases and other problems by putting the brakes on the immune response. The research was published recently online ahead of print in the scientific journal Nature Immunology.

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Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists were awarded a grant from the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund, part of the Center for Innovative Technology, to engineer a viral therapy for a difficult-to-treat brain cancer.

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Learning how good bacteria in the gut feast on complex carbohydrates could end your break up with bread.

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Luring dormant HIV out of hiding and destroying its last cure-defying holdouts has become the holy grail of HIV eradication, but several recent attempts to do so have failed. Now the findings of a Johns Hopkins-led study reveal why that is and offer a strategy that could form a blueprint for a therapeutic vaccine to eradicate lingering virus from the body.

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A small protein active in the human immune response can disable bacterial toxins by exploiting a property that makes the toxins effective – but also turns out to be a weakness.

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When it comes to skin infections, a healthy and robust immune response may depend greatly upon what lies beneath. In a new paper published in the January 2, 2015 issue of Science, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report the surprising discovery that fat cells below the skin help protect us from bacteria.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered what keeps an enzyme from becoming overzealous in its clipping of DNA. Since controlled clipping is required for the production of specialized immune system proteins, an understanding of what keeps the enzyme in check should help explain why its mutant forms can lead to immunodeficiency and cancer.

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Aiming to increase treatment options for prostate cancer patients who have an early relapse, investigators from a multi-institutional cooperative group – including Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey – have demonstrated that a vaccine therapy that stimulates the body’s own immune defenses can be given safely and earlier in the course of prostate cancer progression.

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A study led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists has identified the population of white blood cells that tumors use to enhance growth and suppress the disease-fighting immune system. The results, which appear in the December 18 edition of the scientific journal Immunity, mark a turning point in cancer immunology and provide the foundation for developing more effective immunotherapies.

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Johns Hopkins and University of Alberta researchers have identified a single protein as the root of painful and dangerous allergic reactions to a range of medications and other substances. If a new drug can be found that targets the problematic protein, they say, it could help smooth treatment for patients with conditions ranging from prostate cancer to diabetes to HIV.

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Extra vitamin E protected older mice from a bacterial infection that commonly causes pneumonia. The study from researchers at Tufts University found that extra vitamin E helped regulate the mice’s immune system.

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Baylor Research Institute investigators found that the lipoprotein LOX-1 promotes humoral responses, which could allow researchers to design effective vaccines against microbial infections.

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Macrophages are best known for their Pac Man–like ability to gobble up cellular debris and pathogens in order to thwart infection. A new study describes how these immune cells also help resolve inflammation by inducing white blood cells called neutrophils to leave wounded tissue.

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A key protein may represent a new way to use the immune system to speed healing and counter inflammatory, infectious and autoimmune diseases, according to study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in the December issue of Cell Reports.

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The presence of an immune-suppressing protein in non-cancerous immune cells may predict how patients with different types of cancer respond to treatment, a multi-center phase I study using an investigational immune therapy drug has found. The study, led by a Yale Cancer Center investigator, is described in the Nov. 27 edition of the journal Nature.

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In the near future, physicians may treat some cancer patients with personalized vaccines that spur their immune systems to attack malignant tumors. New research led by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has brought the approach one step closer to reality.

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Fast facts: • In order to distinguish self from other, the immune system processes proteins from inside and outside the body in different ways. • A new study revises understanding of how the process works and sheds light on autoimmune disease.

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A protein complex known as STING plays a crucial role in detecting the presence of tumor cells and promoting an anti-tumor response by the body’s innate immune system, according to two separate studies in Immunity. The results have major implications for the growing field of cancer immunotherapy.

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A team of researchers led by Ludwig Chicago’s Yang-Xin Fu and Ralph Weichselbaum has uncovered the primary signaling mechanisms and cellular interactions that drive immune responses against tumors treated with radiotherapy. Published in the current issue of Immunity, their study suggests novel strategies for boosting the effectiveness of radiotherapy, and for combining it with therapies that harness the immune system to treat cancer.

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A team led by Ludwig and Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) researchers has published a landmark study on the genetic basis of response to a powerful cancer therapy known as immune checkpoint blockade. Their paper, in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, describes the precise genetic signatures in melanoma tumors that determine whether a patient will respond to one such therapy.

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Microbiologists at NYU Langone Medical Center say they have what may be the first strong evidence that the natural presence of viruses in the gut — or what they call the ‘virome’ — plays a health-maintenance and infection-fighting role similar to that of the intestinal bacteria that dwell there and make up the “microbiome.”

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UCLA stem cell researchers cured 18 children born without a working immune system due to life-threatening ADA-deficient Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID). Breakthrough stem cell gene therapy developed by Dr. Donald Kohn and team identifies and corrects faulty gene in children with ADA-deficient SCID using child’s own cells.

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When a viral infection spread through five genetically identical mice in a row, the virus replicated faster and became more virulent or severe. But when the infection spread one-by-one through five genetically diverse mice, the virus had trouble adapting and became less virulent. The University of Utah study suggests that increased genetic diversity should be promoted in livestock and in captive-bred endangered species so as to limit their risk of getting deadly infections.

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Newly formed B cells take the easy way out when it comes to exiting the bone marrow, according to researchers at Yale University School of Medicine.

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Activation of the innate immune system with the bacterial protein flagellin could prevent and cure rotavirus infection, which is among the most common causes of severe diarrhea, says a Georgia State University research team that described the method as a novel means to prevent and treat viral infection.

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Scientists have demonstrated for the first time that a single-dose, needleless Ebola vaccine given to primates through their noses and lungs protected them against infection for at least 21 weeks.

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A new method of developing vaccines could point the way forward in the fight against infectious diseases for which traditional vaccination has failed, according to a new Rutgers study. The method involves training white blood cells that have not previously been the primary focus of vaccine development. William Gause, senior associate dean for research at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, led the study, which recently was published in the journal Nature Immunology.

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University of Colorado Cancer Center study shows that IL-37 regulates immune sensitivity across disease types

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Flu infection has long-ranging effects beyond the lung that can wreak havoc in the gut and cause gastrointestinal symptoms, according to researchers in China. The study suggests ways to relieve these symptoms without interfering with the body’s ability to fight the flu virus in the lung.

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Immunotherapy that can be effective against tumors in young, thin mice can be lethal to obese ones, a new study by UC Davis researchers has found. The findings, published online today in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggest a possible link between body fat and the risk of toxicity from some types of immunotherapy.

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UCLA scientists show that two genes not previously known to be involved with the immune system play an active role in directing stem cells to fight infection

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A new influenza virus, discovered in pigs and later found in cows, shares common ancestry with known influenza viruses, but is distinct enough that researchers have proposed calling it Type D Influenza. Three years ago Ben Hause, then a doctoral student at South Dakota State University, identified and characterized the new virus. SDSU virologist Feng Li and immunologist Radhey Kaushik will develop genetic and biochemical tools to study the virus and then determine how it is transmitted and how it replicates at the molecular level through a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

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By tricking the immune system into generating antibodies specific for only one bacterial protein, Staphylococcus aureus dodges the production of antibodies that might otherwise protect against infection. Vaccine approaches must be designed to side-step this bacterial subterfuge.

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University of Utah scientists have identified two microRNA molecules that control chronic inflammation, a discovery that one day may help researchers prevent certain fatal or debilitating conditions before they start.

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Researchers have made a fast-acting “vaccine” that can reverse the course of myasthenia gravis, a non-inherited autoimmune form of muscle weakness, in an animal model of the disease.

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Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that T-cells – a type of white blood cell that learns to recognize and attack microbial pathogens – are activated by a pain receptor.