Immune System News and Research

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Portuguese researcher to earn Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation award for new HIV therapy

João Gonçalves, from Faculdade de Farmácia e Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal, to win a Grand Challenges Exploration Award

29 Apr 2011

Researchers develop new gene therapy technique for CGD treatment

Researchers have developed an effective technique that uses gene therapy on stem cells to correct chronic granulomatous disease in cell culture, which could eventually serve as a treatment for this rare, inherited immune disorder, according to a study published in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology.

29 Apr 2011

Study explores link between alexithymia and auto-immune disease

This paper, which explores the link between the inability to express emotions and an auto-immune disease, failed to find any statistical significant associations.

29 Apr 2011

LEO Pharma introduces new Taclonex website for plaque psoriasis treatment

LEO Pharma Inc., a wholly-owned US subsidiary of LEO Pharma A/S, makers of Taclonex brand products, today announced the launch of an enhanced and expanded website at www.taclonex.com.

28 Apr 2011

Simple blood test can diagnose early Parkinson's disease

In Parkinson's disease, the human body generates antibodies to combat the amyloid-producing protein alpha synuclein early in the course of the disease. A simple blood test that measures these antibodies can facilitate early diagnosis of the disorder, writes Ludmilla Morozova-Roche and her associates at Umeå University in Sweden in the latest issue of the journal PLoS One.

28 Apr 2011

Blood levels of inflammation-controlling protein linked to childrens' risk of developing diabetes

Decreasing blood levels of a protein that helps control inflammation may be a red flag that could help children avoid type 1 diabetes, researchers say.

28 Apr 2011

New discovery in cancer and autoimmune diseases

Researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta have made an important discovery that provides a new understanding of how our immune system "learns" not to attack our own body, and this could affect the way doctors treat patients with autoimmune diseases and cancer.

28 Apr 2011

Researchers begin approved drugs screening for clinical use against rare diseases

Researchers have begun screening the first definitive collection of thousands of approved drugs for clinical use against rare and neglected diseases. They are hunting for additional uses of the drugs hoping to find off-label therapies, for some of the 6,000 rare diseases that afflict 25 million Americans.

28 Apr 2011

Stop malaria by taking precautions before travelling to endemic zones

More than half of UK malaria cases are seen in people visiting friends and relatives in West Africa and India. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there were 243 million cases of malaria in 2008 and almost a million deaths worldwide.

28 Apr 2011

Seattle BioMed study to identify biomarkers for malaria vaccine design

In the first study of its type in the malaria field, Seattle BioMed has been awarded an $8.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to identify biomarkers that will allow malaria vaccine design based on robust predictors of protective immunity.

28 Apr 2011

NIH awards UH with $361,000 grant for chikungunya vaccine study

It is spread to humans by mosquito bites, causing arthritic symptoms so severe that some victims can't even walk. While rarely fatal, the effects of the chikungunya virus can last up to a year.

28 Apr 2011

Promising pain medication may decrease ability to fight off sepsis

Pain researchers from the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children's National Medical Center have discovered that resiniferatoxin, a drug that has shown early promise as an option for chronic, severe pain sufferers, may decrease the body's ability to fight off bacterial infections, particularly sepsis.

27 Apr 2011

ProtoKinetix, Imaginative Research Associates partner to formulate topical anti-inflammation product

ProtoKinetix, is pleased to announce, that it has entered into a Joint Venture Agreement with Imaginative Research Associates, Inc. to formulate a topical anti-inflammation product for the skin care market.

27 Apr 2011

ISCO completes first series of hepatocytes preclinical testing

International Stem Cell Corporation announces successful completion of the first series of preclinical testing of hepatocytes derived in the lab from human parthenogenetic stem cells.

27 Apr 2011

Study finds gender difference in immune responses to PTSD

Men and women had starkly different immune system responses to chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, with men showing no response and women showing a strong response, in two studies by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

27 Apr 2011

Heparan sulfate may have a key role in tumor-spurred lymphatic vessel growth

Cancer has a mighty big bag of tricks that it uses to evade the body's natural defense mechanisms and proliferate. Among those tricks is one that allows tumor cells to turn the intricate and extensive system of lymphatic vessels into something of a highway to metastasis. Yet research unveiled this week may aid in the development of therapeutics that will put the brakes on such cancer spread, and the researchers who completed the study say the findings may extend to other lymphatic disorders.

27 Apr 2011

IQ Therapeutics completes dosing in IQNLF Phase I trial for anthrax

IQ Therapeutics has completed the dosing of antibody IQNLF in a Phase I clinical trial. A total of 36 healthy volunteers participated in the randomized, placebo controlled, double blind, single dose-escalating study, intended to assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of IQNLF.

27 Apr 2011

Common painkillers decrease effectiveness of antidepressants: Study

According to a latest study, antidepressants like Prozac and Aspirin do not mix. Researchers found that painkillers such as aspirin and ibuprofen appear to decrease the effectiveness of a popular class of antidepressants that includes Prozac, Paxil, Lexapro and Zoloft and Celexa.

26 Apr 2011

Researchers discover molecular mechanisms behind autoimmunity

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine have discovered that human proteins with an affinity for Dermatan Sulfate have the propensity to become autoantigens. In a companion article, the researchers also found that DS physically interacts with dead cells and that the resulting DS-autoantigen complexes drive autoreactive B-1a cell responses and autoantibody production both in-vitro and in mouse models.

26 Apr 2011

Scientists identify key enzyme that destroys lung tissue in TB

Scientists have identified a key enzyme responsible for destroying lung tissue in tuberculosis, they report today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Drugs that inhibit this enzyme are already available, meaning that the finding could lead quickly to new treatments.

26 Apr 2011