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.
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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A key protein previously implicated in Lou Gehrig’s disease and other neurological diseases plays an important role in the response to viral infection
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.
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.
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.
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.
Salk researchers have been able to grow patient-derived, healthy cells in the lab, coming a step closer to treating fatal blood disorders
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A collaboration between Clarkson University and the Trudeau Institute aims to improve the fight against bacterial infections through immunoengineering.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Researchers find clues for reducing infections after bone marrow transplantation for leukemia and lymphoma.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Learning how good bacteria in the gut feast on complex carbohydrates could end your break up with bread.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Baylor Research Institute investigators found that the lipoprotein LOX-1 promotes humoral responses, which could allow researchers to design effective vaccines against microbial infections.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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