Immune System News and Research

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CBAI partners with BlueCross and offers cord blood banking services to their members

Cord Blood America, Inc., announced today it has entered into an agreement with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and is now offering the storage of umbilical cord blood at a discount rate as consistent with its other BCBS licensee contracts.

28 Mar 2011

U.S. FDA approves Yervoy to treat patients with late-stage melanoma

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Yervoy to treat patients with late-stage melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer.

28 Mar 2011

FDA approves ipilimumab for metastatic melanoma treatment

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today its approval of a new treatment for advanced melanoma, the deadliest and most difficult-to-treat form of skin cancer.

28 Mar 2011

BMY receives FDA approval for YERVOY to treat metastatic melanoma

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved YERVOY 3 mg/kg for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

28 Mar 2011

Plasmid containing Sindbis replicase genes can destruct lung cancer

Alpha viruses, such as Sindbis virus, carry their genetic information on a single strand of RNA. On infection they use a protein, replicase, to produce double stranded RNA which is used as genetic material to make more viruses. However the body recognizes dsRNA as foreign, and infected cells initiate an immune response.

28 Mar 2011

Researchers identify new mechanism underlying MS

Multiple sclerosis is a disabling autoimmune disease in which nerve fibers are attacked by the patient's own immune system. Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich have identified a new mechanism that contributes to nerve fiber damage - and shown that this damage can be reversed.

28 Mar 2011

FDA approves ipilimumab to treat metastatic melanoma

The US Food and Drug Administration announced today that the drug ipilimumab has been approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. It is the first drug ever shown to improve overall survival for patients with advanced melanoma.

28 Mar 2011

Multi-disciplinary collaboration proposes intravenous vitamin C for treatment of cancer

The Riordan Clinic announced today publication in the Journal of Translational Medicine results of a collaboration between oncologists, alternative medicine practitioners, and basic researchers, which proposes a new use of intravenous vitamin C for treatment of cancer.

25 Mar 2011

Study finds malaria as a serious problem for patients with landmine injuries

Malaria can complicate the course of disease in poor farmers with landmine injuries in underdeveloped countries, where both malaria and war injuries are frequent causes of illness and death. Tove Heger's doctoral research has charted the extent and effect of malaria on war-injured people and studied the potential for preventing them contracting the disease.

25 Mar 2011

Graceway receives FDA approval for Zyclara Cream to treat genital warts

Graceway Pharmaceuticals announced today that the Food and Drug Administration has approved Zyclara Cream for the treatment of external genital and perianal warts in patients 12 years of age and older.

25 Mar 2011

Merck & Co receives FDA approval for Zostavax vaccine to treat shingles

The Food and Drug Administration today approved the use of Zostavax, a live attenuated virus vaccine, for the prevention of shingles in individuals 50 to 59 years of age. Zostavax is already approved for use in individuals 60 years of age and older.

25 Mar 2011

Immune system misinterprets threats and attacks body's own cells and tissue

Many chronic diseases are the result of the body's immune system mistakenly perceiving that the body is under attack from foreign bodies. A counterattack is then launched - an inflammatory response meant to vanquish the intruder. In reality, the immune system has misinterpreted the threat and is actually attacking the body's own cells and tissue.

24 Mar 2011

Tenascin-C protein can help promote wound healing

We all know the adage: A little bit of a good thing can go a long way. Now researchers in London are reporting that might also be true for a large protein associated with wound healing.

24 Mar 2011

Protein α-myosin could be a promising therapeutic target for myocarditis

Myocardits is an inflammation of the heart muscles that is a major cause of heart failure in young patients. In some cases, the disease is caused by viral infection, but in other patients it is linked to an autoimmune attack on the heart muscle. There are few effective treatment options for myocarditis, in part because the molecular mechanisms that underlie the defect are poorly defined.

24 Mar 2011

Gut bacteria and state of immune system influence personality

Researchers at McMaster University discovered that the "cross-talk" between bacteria in our gut and our brain plays an important role in the development of psychiatric illness, intestinal diseases and probably other health problems as well including obesity.

24 Mar 2011

PFC exposure can lead to early menopause in women

A recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that higher levels of perfluorocarbons in the body are associated with increased odds of having experienced menopause in women between 42 and 64 years old. Women in this age group with high levels of PFCs also had significantly lower concentrations of estrogen when compared to women who had low levels of PFCs.

24 Mar 2011

Oral contraceptive use before pregnancy does not pose respiratory problems in children

A new study by researchers at RTI International, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health refutes previous findings that oral contraceptive use before pregnancy is linked to respiratory problems in children.

24 Mar 2011

Scientists reveal protein target that can trigger myocarditis

People with type 1 diabetes, whose insulin-producing cells have been destroyed by the body's own immune system, are particularly vulnerable to a form of inflammatory heart disease caused by a different autoimmune reaction.

24 Mar 2011

MicroRNAs may play a key role in future medicine

Since their discovery in the 1990s, microRNAs have proven to play a complex role in normal and abnormal functioning of many organ systems. In the April issue of Translational Research, entitled "MicroRNAs: A Potential New Frontier for Medicine," an international group of medical experts explores several themes related to our current understanding of microRNAs and the role they may play in the future of medicine.

24 Mar 2011

New insights into cancer genome may lead to designer drugs for myeloma

Patients with myeloma could benefit from ‘designer’ drugs in the future after new genome-mapping technology has allowed scientists to identify a full genetic blueprint of the mutations which drive the bone marrow cancer.

23 Mar 2011