Researchers can now explain how a cell that is being attacked by bacteria or viruses specifically manages to ‘sound the alarm’ among its neighboring cells so they can react with a quick response. “They’ve succeeded in finding and describing a messenger which both quickly; and effectively can inform the surrounding cells that something is very…
Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered a defect in immune cells known as “killer T cells” that explains their inability to destroy cancer tumors. The researchers believe that repairing this defect could make the cells much better cancer killers. Further, they predict their discovery could be used within three to…
The scientific community has made great strides over the past decade in the development of a new class of cancer therapy called immunotherapy, a treatment that activates a patient’s own immune system to target cancer cells. One type of immunotherapy called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has shown pronounced activity in certain cancers,…
The microbiome in our intestine plays a vital role in people’s health and the immune system Any lack of balance there has not only been linked to chronic inflammatory intestinal inflammation, but also type 2 diabetes and other diseases. A group of researchers at the University Hospital Tübingen has now reported for the first time…
Tuberculosis treatment still entails the intake several antibiotics over a period of many months and is torturous for many patients. The pathogen’s increasing multi drug resistance additionally complicates this lengthy treatment, and side effects frequently lead to a discontinuation of treatment and high mortality rates. Developing alternative treatment approaches is therefore of critical importance. Secondary…
A Massachusetts General Hospital research team has identified interaction between two elements of the immune system as critical for the transformation of a protective immune response into chronic, cancer-promoting inflammation. because In their report published in PNAS, the investigators demonstrate that elevated levels of the immune factor IL-33 and regulatory T cells (Tregs); which suppress…
A multi center phase II clinical trial investigating pembrolizumab as a first-line and programmed cell death therapy in patients with advanced Merkel cell carcinoma reports lasting tumor control, generally manageable side effects and improved overall survival. The results are published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. LSU Health New Orleans’ Adam Riker, MD, FACS,…
For the first time, researchers have revealed the different molecular identities of important immune cells, called T regulatory cells, using single cell genomics, in both mouse and human peripheral non-lymphoid tissues such as skin and colon. The researchers from the Well come Sanger Institute and their collaborators revealed that T regulatory cells have tissue-specific receptors…
Heat waves can reduce the body’s immune response to flu, according to new research in mice at the University of Tokyo. The results have implications for how climate change may affect the future of vaccinations and nutrition. Climate change is predicte to reduce crop yields and nutritional value, as well as widen the ranges of disease-spreading…
The immune system is the body’s best defense in fighting diseases like HIV and cancer. Now; an international team of researchers is harnessing the immune system to reveal new clues that may help in efforts to produce an HIV vaccine. SFU professor Mark Brockman and co-authors from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa have…
A new study has shown that the immune cells within the gut could be related to the rate of metabolism. The results of the new study title, “Gut intraepithelial T cells calibrate metabolism and accelerate cardiovascular disease;” are publishes in the latest issue of the journal Nature. The researchers led by Shun He used genetically engineered mice for…
A Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team has identified what appears to be an important checkpoint in dietary metabolism, a group of cells in the small intestine that slow down metabolism, increasing the amount of ingested food that is stored as fat rather than being quickly converted into energy. In the report published in Nature; they find…