Antigen News and Research

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Study suggests that adult patients with persistent asthma from inner-city populations are not being optimally evaluated

Adults with moderate and severe asthma may not have received optimal evaluation to determine if they were allergic to indoor allergens. Allergy and exposure to several indoor allergens like cockroach, dust mite, molds, and pets can play an important role in the worsening of asthma.

21 Jul 2005

No single PSA level ensures safety from prostate cancer risk

Ian M. Thompson Jr., M.D., professor and chair of urology at the U T Health Science Center, is looking for a better test - or set of tests - to diagnose prostate cancer and to distinguish between cancers that will kill men if left untreated and those that will not threaten health and do not need treatment.

19 Jul 2005

Removing warts without scarring

If burning and freezing warts hasn't worked, ask your dermatologist about getting a shot.

19 Jul 2005

Results demonstrate the safety and tolerability of ABthrax treatment for Anthrax infection

Human Genome Sciences has announced that results published in the current issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases demonstrate that the first investigational agent against anthrax infection to be evaluated in a clinical study since the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, is safe, well tolerated and achieves the blood levels predicted by relevant animal models as necessary to afford significant protection from the lethal effects of the anthrax toxin

19 Jul 2005

Scientists have begun to clarify how one of the body's molecules controls the trafficking of T cells through the blood

...lymph nodes and on to tissues to fight infection -- a crucial response that sometimes goes awry, attacking the body's own tissues and causing autoimmune diseases.

17 Jul 2005

Chromos Molecular Systems issued four key patents

Chromos Molecular Systems has announced that it has further expanded the patent portfolio surrounding both its ACE System and REM Technology with the issuance of four key additional patents.

15 Jul 2005

Stressgen granted U.S. patent providing coverage for the manufacture of HspE7

Stressgen Biotechnologies announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted US Patent Number 6,900,035, covering methods of manufacturing HspE7, the Company's lead product candidate for human papillomavirus (HPV)- related diseases and cancer.

13 Jul 2005

Blood testing links common foods and irritable bowel syndrome

Researchers using comparison trials determined that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients have elevated food-specific IgG4 antibodies to common foods such as wheat, beef, pork, lamb, and soya bean. These findings are published in the July issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

13 Jul 2005

PSA screening of asymptomatic men reduced risk of metastatic prostate cancer by 35 per cent

Early screening of prostate cancer in asymptomatic men may reduce their risk of death from metastatic prostate cancer by as much as 35 per cent, researchers from the University of Toronto have found.

11 Jul 2005

Accuracy of PSA screening for detecting prostate cancer

A new study indicates there is no specific PSA value that has both high sensitivity and high specificity for monitoring healthy men for prostate cancer, but rather there is a continuum of prostate cancer risk at all values of PSA, according to a study in the July 6 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

6 Jul 2005

Scientists solve structure of a critical innate immune system protein

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have solved the structure of a crucial human immune system molecule called TLR3, an acronym for Toll-like receptor three. In an upcoming issue of the journal Science, the protein is described as a large horseshoe-shaped coil composed of 23 leucine-rich repeats (LRRs).

27 Jun 2005

Immunomedics awarded U.S. and Australian patents

Immunomedics announced that it has received notices that the U.S. and Australian patent offices have allowed claims in respective patent applications covering methods for treating a wide range of autoimmune diseases using monoclonal antibodies that bind to the CD22 antigen present on B-lymphocytes.

16 Jun 2005

Vical receives $12 Million HIV vaccine order

Vical Incorporated announced today the receipt of approximately $12.1 million in production orders for multiple clinical lots of DNA vaccines against HIV for the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, under a subcontract managed by SAIC-Frederick, Inc.

16 Jun 2005

Jumping genes help detemine uniqueness of individual brains

Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies may have found one explanation for the puzzling variety in brain organization and function: mobile elements, pieces of DNA that can jump from one place in the genome to another, randomly changing the genetic information in single brain cells.

15 Jun 2005

SARS vaccine produced from plants

According to new research, a vaccine has been produced in genetically engineered tomato and tobacco plants, which triggers anti-SARS antibodies in mice.

15 Jun 2005

Chemotherapy for brain tumors is boosted after vaccine targets resistance-related TRP-2 antigen

In the August issue of the journal Oncogene, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute describe a molecular mechanism that appears to make malignant brain tumors more vulnerable to chemotherapy after they have been treated with the dendritic cell vaccine.

13 Jun 2005

Diversity of HLA genotypes in humans is shaped to a significant degree by pathogens

The great physical diversity that evolution has forged in human beings is in evidence wherever we look, but the genes exhibiting the greatest diversity at the DNA level happen to function in a wholly invisible process: immunity. Genes encoding the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) proteins are among the most diverse in the human genome, and scientists have proposed a number of hypotheses to explain why.

6 Jun 2005

Research shows how a virus uses the gene silencing machinery for its own infectious purposes

In the latest version of the hide-and-seek game between pathogens and the hosts they infect, researchers have found that a virus appears to cloak itself with a recently discovered gene silencing device to evade detection and destruction by immune cells.

3 Jun 2005

New vaccine against whooping cough is effective in teens and adults

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has announced that a study to be published in the June 22/29 issue found that a new vaccine against whooping cough is effective in teens and adults, carriers of the contagious respiratory disease so dangerous to infants.

3 Jun 2005

Booster vaccine that includes protection against pertussis shows promise

A new combination vaccine not yet on the market appears to provide a booster for immunity against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis for adolescents and adults and was found to have a similar overall safety profile when compared to the current licensed tetanus-diphtheria vaccine, according to a new study in JAMA.

3 Jun 2005