Immune System News and Research

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Potential colon cancer being tested

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have begun testing a vaccine that might be able to prevent colon cancer in people at high risk for developing the disease.

20 Mar 2009

Research could lead to potential new drugs for treating asthma

The American Asthma Foundation announced that a significant research discovery they funded has been licensed by a leading biotech company.

20 Mar 2009

Lab-grown nerves promote nerve regeneration after injury

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have engineered transplantable living nerve tissue that encourages and guides regeneration in an animal model. Results were published this month in Tissue Engineering.

20 Mar 2009

Cherries show promise in osteoarthritis pain relief

For the estimated 27 million Americans who suffer from osteoarthritis, pain relief may come with a cherry on top.

20 Mar 2009

Paradigm shift in the regulation of immune response

Over the past decade various pieces of the puzzle how signal transmission controls immunity have been coming together.

20 Mar 2009

Experimental vaccine shows promise in preventing cytomegalovirus infection

Each year, approximately 8,000 infants in the United States develop severe hearing, mental or movement impairments after becoming infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common virus passed onto them while still in the womb.

19 Mar 2009

MRSA study suggests strategy shift needed to develop effective therapeutics

USA300-the major epidemic strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) causing severe infections in the United States during the past decade-inherits its destructiveness directly from a forefather strain of the bacterium called USA500 rather than randomly acquiring harmful genes from other MRSA strains.

17 Mar 2009

Helix BioPharma receives approval to start phase II study of topical interferon alpha-2b in low-grade cervical lesions

Helix BioPharma Corp. announced that it has received the necessary regulatory approvals in Germany to initiate its planned Phase II pharmacokinetic study of Topical Interferon Alpha-2b in patients with low-grade cervical lesions.

16 Mar 2009

Combo therapy restores T cell numbers in HIV-infected individuals

White blood cells known as CD4+ T cells are the main target of HIV.

16 Mar 2009

Catching the common cold virus: researchers coming down with the rhinovirus genome

A new study by Brigham Young University researchers on the virus behind nearly half of all cold infections explains how and where evolution occurs in the rhinovirus genome and what this means for possible vaccines.

16 Mar 2009

Immune cells play surprising role in cystic fibrosis lung damage

Immune cells once thought to be innocent bystanders in cystic fibrosis may hold the key to stopping patients' fatal lung disease.

16 Mar 2009

Dendritic cells ensure immune tolerance

One of the most important tasks of the immune system is to identify what is foreign and what is self. If this distinction fails, then the body's own structures will be attacked, the result of which could be an autoimmune disease such as diabetes mellitus type 1 or multiple sclerosis. The only way to protect against these afflictions is to destroy all immune factors that turn against the body's own tissue - in other words: immune tolerance.

16 Mar 2009

Children can complete treatment for peanut allergies and achieve long-term tolerance

A carefully administered daily dose of peanuts has been so successful as a therapy for peanut allergies that a select group of children is now off treatment and eating peanuts daily, report doctors at Duke University Medical Center and Arkansas Children's Hospital.

15 Mar 2009

New approach to prevent bacterial infections from taking hold

Dr Quinn Parks and colleagues describe how they used enzymes against products of the body's own defence cells to prevent Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria from building a protective biofilm which enables them to avoid both the body's immune mechanisms and antibiotics.

15 Mar 2009

Malaria immunity trigger found for multiple mosquito species

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have for the first time identified a molecular pathway that triggers an immune response in multiple mosquito species capable of stopping the development of Plasmodium falciparum -the parasite that causes malaria in humans.

15 Mar 2009

A natural immune response to HIV in exceptional patients

For 25 years, researchers have tried and failed to develop an HIV vaccine, primarily by focusing on a small number of engineered "super antibodies" to fend off the virus before it takes hold.

15 Mar 2009

Scientists show how 'dormant virus' causes cancer

Cancer Research UK scientists have revealed how a dormant virus triggers a type of cancer found in young people, according to research published in PLoS Pathogens.

15 Mar 2009

Rutgers AIDS researchers progress toward vaccine

Rutgers AIDS researchers Gail Ferstandig Arnold and Eddy Arnold may have turned a corner in their search for a HIV vaccine.

12 Mar 2009

Certain gene variations protect against cervical cancer

Women with certain gene variations appear to be protected against cervical cancer, according to a study led by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and reported in Clinical Cancer Research.

12 Mar 2009

Biothera receives approval to launch two lung cancer trials

German regulatory authorities have granted approval to Biothera to conduct two open label, multicenter, randomized Phase II clinical trials studying Imprime PGGÂ® administered in combination with monoclonal antibodies and chemotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the company announced today.

12 Mar 2009