Immune System News and Research

RSS

Protective effects of breast milk are higher in girls than in boys

Challenging the long-standing belief that breast-feeding equally protects all babies against disease, research led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center investigators suggests that when it comes to respiratory infections, the protective effects of breast milk are higher in girls than in boys.

2 Jun 2008

UT Southwestern mouse model mimics hyperglycemia, aids in diabetes research

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have genetically engineered a laboratory mouse in which pancreatic beta cells can regenerate after being induced to die. The new animal model's regenerative ability may provide future insights into improved treatments of diabetes, which affects millions of Americans.

2 Jun 2008

Survivors of childhood Hodgkin's lymphoma at higher risk of future health problems

Adults who survived childhood Hodgkin's Lymphoma should be especially vigilant about cancer and cardiovascular screenings, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues.

1 Jun 2008

Yale researchers block transforming growth factor to clear up amyloid plaques in mice

Blocking a common immune system response cleared up plaques associated with Alzheimer's Disease and enabled treated mice to recover some lost memory, Yale University researchers report Friday in the journal Nature Medicine.

1 Jun 2008

Combination biotherapies safe, promising for melanoma patients

The combination of two different biotherapies may be beneficial for patients with inoperable melanoma, according to a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) study presented at the 44th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.

1 Jun 2008

Children's diet not the main cause of ADHD

Food may not be the major cause of hyperactivity in children. Genetics, brain function and parental actions such as smoking may be just as important.

30 May 2008

Self-assembled viruses

Viruses are true experts at importing genetic material into the cells of an infected organism. This trait is now being exploited for gene therapy, in which genes are brought into the cells of a patient to treat genetic diseases or genetic defects. Korean researchers have now made an artificial virus. As described in the journal Angewandte Chemie, they have been able to use it to transport both genes and drugs into the interior of cancer cells.

30 May 2008

Is mankind contaminating space?

Life in outer space is an absolute certainty, and it is likely to be more familiar than we might think, according to an article in the May issue of Microbiology Today. Ever since the start of the space race we have sent more than just satellites and astronauts into space: spacecraft are not routinely decontaminated and are teeming with microbial life.

28 May 2008

San Francisco Mayor rejects proposed budget cuts to HIV/AIDS services

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently rejected proposed cuts to HIV/AIDS services in his fiscal year 2009 budget, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. According to the Chronicle, Newsom rejected a proposal by Mitch Katz, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, to cut $3 million of the $10 million the department allocates to 30 not-for-profit groups that provide HIV/AIDS services.

28 May 2008

Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS organizations call for integration of TB interventions into country's HIV/AIDS programs

The Zimbabwe government should integrate tuberculosis interventions into its HIV/AIDS programs, HIV/AIDS service organizations and other health advocates said at a recent forum hosted by the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information Dissemination Service in the country's capital of Harare, the Herald reports.

28 May 2008

Why do Finnish children have type 1 diabetes and allergic symptoms approximately five times more often than children in Russian Karelia?

High living standards and the life style connected to them seem to promote the development of autoimmune diseases and allergic symptoms. This has lead to the assumption that the immune system begins to overreact to the organism's own structures or to exogenous non-infectious proteins, i.e. allergens, when it does not have to work hard enough to protect the individual from infections.

28 May 2008

New multi-million pound study to find the cause of Type 1 diabetes

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) has awarded more than £3 million to fund a research centre that will investigate the causes of Type 1 diabetes - a condition that results from an immune attack on the body's insulin producing cells. The study, known as the JDRF Centre for Diabetes Genes, Autoimmunity and Prevention (D-GAP), aims to understand how and why Type 1 diabetes occurs, knowledge that may help develop future therapies with the aim of preventing the condition.

28 May 2008

Allergy - it's in the genes

In a world first scientists at theWestmead Millennium Institute have identified how a gene associated with allergic diseases such as asthma and eczema works, providing new hope for potential drug treatments.

28 May 2008

Global drug research programme comes to Diamond in Oxfordshire

Diamond has announced that USA-based global biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is the first industrial user at the UK's world class new research facility, Diamond Light Source

27 May 2008

Avoiding spleen removal for Cooley's anemia sufferers

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College may have discovered the precise role of a gene in one of the world's most common blood disorders, beta-thalassemia, commonly known as Cooley's anemia. Along with sickle-cell anemia, Cooley's anemia is the most commonly inherited disease in the world, affecting many people of Mediterranean descent, and 20 out of every 100,000 African-Americans. The World Health Organization estimates that between 50,000-100,000 children are born with the disease each year.

27 May 2008

Gum disease an indicator of increased cancer risk

British scientists say gum disease, both in smokers and non-smokers, may be a warning sign of an increased risk of cancer.

27 May 2008

New treatments for viral and other diseases by blocking genes

The elusive goal of developing effective treatments for viral diseases such as AIDS and influenza has been brought closer by dramatic progress in the ability to interfere with viral genetic machinery. The stage was set for a coordinated European effort to accelerate research and stimulate development of new treatments against viral diseases at a recent research conference organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF).

26 May 2008

Discovery on how an Helicobacter pylori toxin gets into cells

Helicobacter pylori is one tough bug. It can survive in the human stomach, a zone with a pH somewhere between that of lemon juice and battery acid. Now researchers have discovered how an H. pylori toxin gets into cells, a feat that helps the bacterium live in one of the most inhospitable environments in the body

26 May 2008

Cancer vaccine could be in the pipeline

Cancer researchers in the UK say they are one step closer to producing a specific targeted vaccine for killing cancer cells.

25 May 2008

Good news for diabetics

A study has found that a short course of intensive insulin treatment may delay the progression of the disease in people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes

25 May 2008