In a 38-year-old man who manifested mild symptoms of COVID-19 for 20 days, the novel coronavirus continued to be detected in his organism and to undergo mutations for 232 days.
Questions remain on which vaccine type to get, whether to mix and match types, and how soon after a breakthrough infection to get boosted.
To untangle some of these uncertainties, Harvard Medicine News spoke with Jonathan Li, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Research shows T cells offer protection even against new SARS-CoV-2 variants
T cells shield against serious illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19
T cell-based vaccines may further boost protection from these critical immune players as the virus continues to shapeshift
George Washington University researchers have developed a blood test that quickly detects if someone has COVID-19 and predicts how severely the immune system will react to the infection, according to a new study coming out today in PLOS One. The findings could one day lead to a powerful tool to help doctors determine the best treatment plan for people with COVID-19.
The make-up of the gut microbiome may be linked to a person’s risk of developing ‘long COVID’ many months after initial infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19 infection, suggests research published online in the journal Gut.
Blocking a key protein found in Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes—the principal vector for malaria transmission to humans in Africa—could thwart infection with malaria parasites and thus prevent them from transmitting the parasites to humans, according to a study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Many experts now predict that COVID-19, which so far has killed more than 5.5 million people worldwide, will remain endemic as new, infectious variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerge.
Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have found that four COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, J&J/Janssen, and Novavax) prompt the body to make effective, long-lasting T cells against SARS-CoV-2. These T cells can recognize SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern, including Delta and Omicron.
The Global Virus Network (GVN), representing 66 Centers of Excellence and 10 Affiliates in 35 countries comprising foremost experts in every class of virus causing disease in humans, and the Institute of Biomedical Systems and Biotechnologies at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) announced the addition of the Institute as GVN’s newest Center of Excellence.
Studies since the start of the pandemic have noted that pigs exposed to the coronavirus don’t show clinical signs of disease nor do they transmit the virus to other animals. Iowa State University scientists have uncovered important clues that shed light on why pigs don’t get sick, and the discovery could lead to better treatments for COVID-19 in humans.
A study by researchers at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center has found that patients with cancer who receive chemotherapy ― and some targeted therapies, such as CDK4/6 inhibitors and therapies targeted at B cells ― may mount an inadequate immune response to COVID-19 vaccination. The findings are published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and Kyowa Kirin, Inc. (KKNA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd (Kyowa Kirin, TSE: 4151), a global specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced the signing of a new collaboration agreement. The agreement marks another milestone in one of the most enduring industry-academic collaborations in the world.
A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that treatment with an immune-boosting protein called interleukin 7 (IL-7) in combination with radiation improves survival in mice with glioblastoma. The study in mice suggests promise for a phase 1/2 clinical trial at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine that is investigating a long-acting type of IL-7 in patients with glioblastoma.
Researchers studying how small worms defend themselves against pathogens have discovered a gene that acts as a first-line response against infection. They identified “ZIP-1” as a centralized hub for immune response, a finding could have implications for understanding human immunity against viruses.
A new study published Jan. 13 in Science reports that Epstein-Barr virus infection – known for causing mononucleosis or “mono,” could be a primary cause for multiple sclerosis.
The human immune system, that marvel of complexity, subtlety, and sophistication, includes a billion-year-old family of proteins used by bacteria to defend themselves against viruses, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and in Israel have discovered.
An artery is not like a nose. Or is it?
Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have discovered that immune cells in arteries can "sniff" out their surroundings and cause inflammation.
A new, targeted therapy, developed by researchers from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the University of Houston, and the pharmaceutical company Equillium, together with several other academic collaborators, inhibits specific immune cells associated with lupus nephritis, and was effective in improving kidney inflammation in animal models of lupus and lupus nephritis. The new approach could serve as an alternative to current treatments targeting multiple immune cells, and provide a more effective and potentially personalized remedy for lupus nephritis. The development was recently reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Tertiary lymphoid structures are formations that occur outside of the lymphatic system. They contain immune cells and are similar in structure and function to lymph nodes and other lymphoid structures. However, little is known about how tertiary lymphoid structures form. In a new article published in Immunity, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers report on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control tertiary lymphoid structure formation within tumors.
Researchers at Penn Medicine have discovered a new, more effective method of preventing the body’s own proteins from treating nanomedicines like foreign invaders, by covering the nanoparticles with a coating to suppress the immune response that dampens the therapy’s effectiveness.
There is growing evidence that the currently available MRNA vaccines provide some protection against the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) of the SARS-COV-2 virus, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. According to the CDC, preliminary results for Omicron from South Africa showed that the Pfizer vaccine provided 70% protection against COVID-19 hospitalization and 33% against infection, during the current Omicron wave. Granted, the protection is reduced compared with the Delta variant (93% for hospitalization and 80% for infection).
An experimental immunotherapy can temporarily reprogram patients’ immune cells to attack a specific target via only a single injection of messenger RNA (mRNA), similar to the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and Charles River Laboratories International, Inc., are launching a new project to uncover exactly how different cells in the human immune system respond to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
مدينة روتشستر، ولاية مينيسوتا - تُظهر أبحاث مايو كلينك أن إضافة علاج الحمض النووي الريبوزي المرسال (mRNA) يحسن الاستجابة للعلاج المناعي للسرطان لدى المرضى الذين لم يستجيبوا للعلاج. ويستخدم العلاج المناعي جهاز المناعة في الجسم للوقاية من السرطان ومكافحته والقضاء عليه. كما نُشرت الدراسة في أبحاث مناعة السرطان، إحدى مجلات الجمعية الأمريكية لأبحاث السرطان.
a adição da terapia com RNA mensageiro ou mRNA, melhora a reposta da imunoterapia ao câncer nos pacientes que não estavam respondendo ao tratamento, demonstra uma pesquisa da Mayo Clinic. A imunoterapia utiliza o sistema imunológico para prevenir, controlar e eliminar o câncer. O estudo está publicado no Cancer Immunology Research, uma revista médica da Associação Americana para Pesquisa do Câncer.
Añadir la terapia con ARN mensajero mejora la respuesta a la inmunoterapia contra el cáncer en los pacientes que no respondieron al tratamiento, revela un estudio de Mayo Clinic. La inmunoterapia utiliza al sistema inmunitario para prevenir, controlar y eliminar el cáncer. El estudio se publicó en Cancer Immunology Research (Investigación Inmunológica sobre el Cáncer), revista de la Asociación Americana de Investigación sobre el Cáncer.
A first-in-kind immune-modulating drug that arose from decades of basic research at UT Southwestern Medical Center has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a new treatment for adults with a form of myasthenia gravis. This rare and chronic autoimmune disease is characterized by debilitating and potentially life-threatening muscle weakness.
Scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have uncovered how loss of TET enzymes can lead to B cell lymphoma. Their research, published in Nature Immunology, could potentially open opportunities for designing drug treatment strategies to target malignant cells in many cancers.
MED-CU has invented a Personalized Probiotics (Dispensing) Machine to deliver live microorganisms that have health benefits to treat patients with unclear health problems and those with microbial imbalances or “dysbiosis”.
The virus that causes COVID-19 has adopted some stealth moves to stay alive and kicking, and one secret to its success is hiding from the immune system by spreading through cell-to-cell transmission, a new study has found.
What if the key to aging well lies in reprogramming immune system cells to strengthen them against infections and cancer? Researchers at UT Southwestern are working to find out.
A new study from COVID researchers at Columbia and the University of Hong Kong adds more evidence that the omicron variant can evade the immune protection conferred by vaccines and natural infection.
Eight days of intense meditation cause robust activation of the immune system, University of Florida researchers and their colleagues have found. The findings are believed to be the first comprehensive genomic study of how meditation affects the biological processes directly involved in disease development.
os especialistas da Mayo Clinic afirmam que, independentemente da variante, a prevenção da infecção funciona. As vacinas reduzem e previnem a hospitalização e morte de acordo com o conhecimento atual.
مدينة روتشستر، ولاية مينيسوتا- يقول خبراء مايو كلينك، بغض النظر عن المتحور، فإن الوقاية من العدوى تجدي نفعًا. وتقلل اللقاحات من دخول المستشفى والوفاة وتقي منهما بناءً على المعرفة الحالية. إذا كنتَ قادرًا على التطعيم أو مؤهلًا للحصول على جرعة معززة، فقم بذلك الآن.
Los expertos de Mayo Clinic dicen que, independientemente de la variante, la prevención de la infección funciona. Las vacunas reducen y previenen los casos de hospitalización y muerte, según lo que se sabe hasta ahora. Si reúnes las condiciones para vacunarte o recibir un refuerzo, hazlo ahora.
Adding messenger RNA, or mRNA therapy improves the response to cancer immunotherapy in patients who weren't responding to the treatment, Mayo Clinic research shows. Immunotherapy uses the body’s immune system to prevent, control and eliminate cancer. The study is published in Cancer Immunology Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
A long, long time ago, the BCG vaccine was approved for use against tuberculosis (TB), and it's still given to infants today. For generations, the vaccine has saved lives and prevented untold suffering.
Are you worried about the status of your immune system? You're not alone. People all over the globe have been feeling anxious about their health and the health of their loved ones.
Asthma has been associated with a lowered risk of brain tumors, and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis now think they know why: Immune cells activated under conditions of asthma are less able to promote the growth of brain tumors. The findings could lead to new therapeutic approaches.