Feature Channels: Immunology

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26-Aug-2015 7:00 PM EDT
Mammary Gland Is Shaped by Adaptive Immune System During Development
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

In experiments with mouse tissue, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered that the adaptive immune system, generally associated with fighting infections, plays an active role in guiding the normal development of mammary glands, the only organs--in female humans as well as mice--that develop predominately after birth, beginning at puberty.

20-Aug-2015 11:05 AM EDT
Tiny Antibodies Point to Vulnerability in Disease-Causing Parasites
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

By teasing apart the structure of an enzyme vital to the parasites that cause toxoplasmosis and malaria, Whitehead Institute scientists have identified a potentially ‘drugable’ target that could prevent parasites from entering and exiting host cells.

Released: 10-Aug-2015 3:05 PM EDT
Traitors in Our Midst: Bacteria Use Toxins to Turn Our Own Bodies Against Us
Ohio State University

Researchers who have revealed a highly efficient way that bacteria use toxins to interrupt the immune response say that until now, the trickery of these toxins has been underappreciated in science.

   
3-Aug-2015 2:05 PM EDT
Scripps Florida Scientists Show How Aging Cripples the Immune System, Suggesting Benefits of Antioxidants
Scripps Research Institute

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have shown how aging cripples the production of new immune cells, decreasing the immune system’s response to vaccines and putting the elderly at risk of infection.

31-Jul-2015 8:00 AM EDT
New Insight Into How the Immune System Sounds the Alarm
Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Salk scientists unveil how a critical molecule turns on T cells.

Released: 30-Jul-2015 4:05 PM EDT
How to Become a T Follicular Helper Cell
La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Follicular helper Tcells (TFH cells), a rare type of immune cell that is essential for inducing a strong and lasting antibody response to viruses and other microbes, have garnered intense interest in recent years but the molecular signals that drive their differentiation had remained unclear. Now, a team of researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology has identified a pair of master regulators that control the fate of TFH cells.

28-Jul-2015 2:05 PM EDT
Diversion of an HIV Vaccine Immune Response by Antibodies Reactive with Gut Microbiome
Duke Health

A recent HIV vaccine trial testing the HIV envelope as an immunogen was unsuccessful for protection against HIV infection. A new study has found that this vaccine selectively recruited antibodies reactive with both the HIV envelope and common intestinal microbes — a phenomenon previously reported by the same investigators to occur in the setting of acute HIV infection.

Released: 30-Jul-2015 10:00 AM EDT
Evolutionary War Between Microorganisms Affecting Human Health, IU Biologist Says
Indiana University

Health experts have warned for years that the overuse of antibiotics is creating “superbugs” able to resist drugs treating infection. Now scientists at Indiana University and elsewhere are finding evidence that an invisible war between microorganisms may also be catching humans in the crossfire.

   
Released: 30-Jul-2015 9:05 AM EDT
Immunotherapy: 5 Ways to Stop Cancer
Cancer Research Institute

"Immunotherapy: 5 Ways to Stop Cancer" features five 1-minute animated videos that provide a quick overview of the five most common immunotherapies in use: monoclonal antibodies, checkpoint inhibitors, cancer vaccines, adoptive cell therapy, and oncolytic viruses.

Released: 30-Jul-2015 9:05 AM EDT
What Cancer Patients Should Know: Latest Immunotherapy News From ASCO
Cancer Research Institute

Learn the latest news in cancer immunotherapy for melanoma, lung cancer, leukemia, liver cancer, and other cancer types.

Released: 27-Jul-2015 11:05 AM EDT
Doctors at Cincinnati Children’s Remind Parents about the Importance of Vaccination
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Doctors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center want to remind parents about the importance of immunizing their children when preparing to send their children back to school.

22-Jul-2015 11:05 AM EDT
Lingering Lymphocytes Lash Out Against Leishmania
The Rockefeller University Press

Immune cells that hang around after parasitic skin infection help ward off secondary attack. These skin squatters may prove to be the key to successful anti-parasite vaccines.

Released: 21-Jul-2015 8:05 AM EDT
Poverty and Child Development, Race and Heart Health, Pot to Treat Pain, and More Top Stories 21 July 2015
Newswise Trends

Other topics include genetics to predict prostate cancer, Facebook and body image, bioengineered immune cell response, and more...

       
16-Jul-2015 6:05 PM EDT
Alefacept Preserves Beta Cell Function in Some New-Onset Type 1 Diabetes Patients Out to Two Years
Immune Tolerance Network

Individuals with new-onset type 1 diabetes who took two courses of alefacept (Amevive®, Astellas Pharma Inc.) soon after diagnosis show preserved beta cell function after two years compared to those who received a placebo.

17-Jul-2015 4:30 PM EDT
Patients' Own Genetically Altered Immune Cells Show Promise in Fighting Blood Cancer
University of Maryland Medical Center

In recent years, immunotherapy has emerged as a promising treatment for certain cancers. Now this strategy, which uses patients’ own immune cells, genetically engineered to target tumors, has shown significant success against multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells that is largely incurable. The results appeared in a study published online today in Nature Medicine.

15-Jul-2015 8:00 AM EDT
Magnetic Nanoparticles Could Be Key to Effective Immunotherapy
Johns Hopkins Medicine

In recent years, researchers have hotly pursued immunotherapy, a promising form of treatment that relies on harnessing and training the body’s own immune system to better fight cancer and infection. Now, results of a study led by Johns Hopkins investigators suggests that a device composed of a magnetic column paired with custom-made magnetic nanoparticles may hold a key to bringing immunotherapy into widespread and successful clinical use. A summary of the research, conducted in mouse and human cells, appears online July 14 in the journal ACS Nano.

7-Jul-2015 1:05 PM EDT
Immune Cell Journey Has Bloody Consequences
The Rockefeller University Press

Immune cells that creep across blood vessels trigger potentially fatal bleeding in platelet-deficient mice, according to a new report. If the same is true in humans, blocking the passage of these cells could prevent dangerous complications in patients undergoing transplants or chemotherapy.

6-Jul-2015 4:00 PM EDT
Vanderbilt Researchers Develop Antibodies to Fight Chikungunya Virus
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s James Crowe, M.D., Ann Scott Carell Professor and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, and his team are reporting the first large panel of antibody treatments against the chikungunya virus in the current issue of Cell Host and Microbe.

Released: 6-Jul-2015 8:05 AM EDT
Hispanic Health Disparities, Statins and Aggression in Men, Supercharged Stem Cells, and More Top Stories 6 July 2015
Newswise Trends

Other topics include memories and protein, physics and gas mileage, agriculture and food safety, vaccine for Dengue, retinoblastoma proteins in cancer progression, and more.

       
Released: 24-Jun-2015 5:05 PM EDT
Weight Loss, Combined with Vitamin D, Reduces Inflammation Linked to Cancer, Chronic Disease
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

For the first time, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found that weight loss, in combination with vitamin D supplementation, has a greater effect on reducing chronic inflammation than weight loss alone. Chronic inflammation is known to contribute to the development and progression of several diseases, including some cancers.

Released: 19-Jun-2015 11:05 AM EDT
Discovery Promises New Treatments to Thwart Colon Cancer
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered how an immune system protein, called AIM2 (Absent in Melanoma 2), plays a role in determining the aggressiveness of colon cancer. They found that AIM2 deficiency causes uncontrolled proliferation of intestinal cells.

17-Jun-2015 4:05 PM EDT
Team Shows AIDS Vaccine Candidate Successfully ‘Primes’ Immune System
Scripps Research Institute

New research led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and The Rockefeller University shows in mice that an experimental vaccine candidate designed at TSRI can stimulate the immune system activity necessary to stop HIV infection.

Released: 16-Jun-2015 4:05 PM EDT
Keeping a Lid on Inflammation
La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Although critically important for shaping the immune response and maintaining self-tolerance, how regulatory T cells (Treg cells) hold on to their immune-suppressive powers had remained unclear. Now, for the first time, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology identified a molecular pathway that maintains the stability and function of Treg cells.

Released: 12-Jun-2015 6:00 AM EDT
Focused Ultrasound Could Play a Role in Cancer Immunotherapy
Focused Ultrasound Foundation

Cancer immunotherapies are agents that harness the power of the immune system to fight cancer. Unlike traditional cancer treatments that directly kill tumor cells (such as chemotherapy and radiation), immunotherapy operates through the intermediary of the immune system. Immunotherapies empower the immune system to specifically seek out and destroy cancer cells.

Released: 10-Jun-2015 3:05 PM EDT
First Functional, Synthetic Immune Organ with Controllable Antibodies Created by Engineers
Cornell University

Cornell University engineers have created a functional, synthetic immune organ that produces antibodies and can be controlled in the lab, completely separate from a living organism. The engineered organ has implications for everything from rapid production of immune therapies to new frontiers in cancer or infectious disease research.

8-Jun-2015 4:05 AM EDT
How a Gut Feeling for Infection Programmes Our Immune Response
University of Manchester

An unexpected finding by an international team of scientists based at The University of Manchester and National Institutes of Health in America has shed new light on how immune cells are programmed to either repair or protect the body.

8-Jun-2015 3:00 PM EDT
Yin and Yang: Immune Signaling Protein Has Opposing Roles in Breast Cancer Development
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Countering previously held beliefs, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that inhibiting the immune receptor protein TLR4 may not be a wise treatment strategy in all cancers.

Released: 3-Jun-2015 3:05 PM EDT
Homing in on What's Wearing Out T Cells
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

When the T cells of your immune system are forced to deal over time with cancer or a chronic infection they become exhausted - less effective at attacking and destroying invaders. While the PD-1 protein pathway has long been implicated as a primary player in T cell exhaustion, a major question has been whether PD-1 actually directly causes exhaustion. A new paper seems to, at least partially, let PD-1 off the hook.

2-Jun-2015 11:05 AM EDT
Immunity Enzyme Defends Against Tuberculosis Infection, Study by UT Southwestern Scientists Shows
UT Southwestern Medical Center

A study by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center has identified how an enzyme involved in protecting the body from pathogens senses Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), a bacterial pathogen that infects millions of people worldwide and causes about 1.5 million deaths annually.

Released: 1-Jun-2015 2:00 PM EDT
Trending Stories Report for 1 June 2015
Newswise Trends

Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: neurology, cancer, immunotherapy, Alan Alda present science award, genetics, vision, lung cancer, prostate cancer, environmental health.

       
27-May-2015 4:50 PM EDT
Small Study Shows Genetic Biomarker May Predict Cancer Patients' Response to Immunotherapy Drug
Johns Hopkins Medicine

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.

29-May-2015 2:00 PM EDT
Phase 2 Trial Identifies Genetic Dysfunction That Makes Many Types of Cancer Vulnerable to an Immunotherapy
Ludwig Cancer Research

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).

Released: 28-May-2015 3:05 PM EDT
Melanoma Patients Treated with a Modified Cold Sore (Herpes) Virus Had Improved Survival
University of Louisville

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.

Released: 27-May-2015 9:05 AM EDT
Trending Stories Report for 27 May 2015
Newswise Trends

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.

       
Released: 26-May-2015 9:05 PM EDT
Cooperation Among Viral Variants Helps Hepatitis C Survive Immune System Attacks
Georgia Institute of Technology

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.

Released: 26-May-2015 9:00 AM EDT
Ludwig Scientists to Report Advances in Treatment of Brain, Skin, Gastrointestinal Cancers at 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting
Ludwig Cancer Research

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.

21-May-2015 10:05 AM EDT
Microfluidic Cell-Squeezing Device Opens New Possibilities for Cell-Based Vaccines
Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT

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.

Released: 21-May-2015 12:05 PM EDT
Anti-Stroke Drug Effective Treatment for Middle-Ear Infections, Researchers Say
Georgia State University

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.

Released: 18-May-2015 2:05 PM EDT
How the Immune System Controls the Human Biological Clock in Times of Infection
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

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.

Released: 15-May-2015 11:05 AM EDT
Trending Stories Report for 15 May 2015
Newswise Trends

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.

       
Released: 13-May-2015 1:05 PM EDT
Infant Antibiotic Use Linked to Adult Diseases
University of Minnesota

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.

12-May-2015 1:05 PM EDT
TSRI Scientists Identify Interferon Beta as Likely Culprit in Persistent Viral Infections
Scripps Research Institute

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.

Released: 12-May-2015 1:05 PM EDT
Joslin Research Discovery Provides Insight into Development of Autoimmunity
Joslin Diabetes Center

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.

11-May-2015 8:00 AM EDT
Finding Should Enhance Treatments That Stop Immune System Attacks
University of Manchester

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.

Released: 7-May-2015 5:05 PM EDT
Malaria's Doorway to Infect Blood Cells Identified; Potential to Close it, Lock it, Throw Away the Key
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

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.

Released: 6-May-2015 1:05 PM EDT
Molecular Homing Beacon Redirects Human Antibodies to Fight Pathogenic Bacteria
UC San Diego Health

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.

4-May-2015 3:00 PM EDT
Researchers “Un-Can” the HIV Virus
Universite de Montreal

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.

Released: 29-Apr-2015 8:05 AM EDT
Cytokine May Play a Major Role in Multiple Sclerosis
Thomas Jefferson University

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

Released: 29-Apr-2015 5:00 AM EDT
University of Louisville Researchers Detail Role of Silica and Lung Cancer
University of Louisville

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.

Released: 23-Apr-2015 8:05 AM EDT
Trending Stories Report for 23 April 2015
Newswise Trends

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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