Immune System News and Research

RSS

Existing drugs may be useful in treating brain tumors

Scientists have shown how developing brain tumors can turn an encounter with a signaling molecule from a fatal experience for the tumor cells into a cue for their own growth and multiplication.

17 Oct 2007

Discovery of new antibody that helps detect type 1 diabetes

Researchers at the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes and University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center's School of Medicine have discovered a fourth antibody in human blood which will help more accurately predict who is predisposed to type 1 diabetes.

17 Oct 2007

Prebiotics in infants for prevention of allergic disease and food hypersensitivity

Many parents add prebiotics and probiotics to children's food to help treat health problems, and according to two new reviews, the supplements might also help prevent eczema in babies at high risk.

17 Oct 2007

New knowledge about basic cancer biology

Merging technological innovations and new knowledge about basic cancer biology, cancer researchers now target specific molecules involved in critical chemical pathways of cancerous cells.

17 Oct 2007

Is the spleen able to prohibit tumor cell proliferation?

Primary and metastatic tumors of the spleen are described as unusual, excluding involvement by lymphoma.

17 Oct 2007

Nanorods of gold blast tumor cells

Researchers have shown how tiny "nanorods" of gold can be triggered by a laser beam to blast holes in the membranes of tumor cells, setting in motion a complex biochemical mechanism that leads to a tumor cell's self-destruction.

17 Oct 2007

Farm children have lower risk of asthma

Farm children appear to have a lower risk of asthma than their urban counterparts or even those living in a non-agricultural rural environment, according to a University of Alberta study.

17 Oct 2007

Ear infection superbug found to be resistant to all pediatric antibiotics

Researchers have discovered a strain of bacteria resistant to all approved drugs used to fight ear infections in children, according to an article to be published tomorrow in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

17 Oct 2007

Optical coherence tomography helps track multiple sclerosis

A five-minute eye exam might prove to be an inexpensive and effective way to gauge and track the debilitating neurological disease multiple sclerosis, potentially complementing costly magnetic resonance imaging to detect brain shrinkage - a characteristic of the disease's progression.

16 Oct 2007

The importance of the endocannabinoid-system

Cannabis (marijuana) is the most widely produced plant-based illicit drug worldwide and the illegal drug most frequently used in Europe.

15 Oct 2007

Discovery of way to match pathogens to their antibodies

The search for a vaccination against HIV has been in progress since 1984, with very little success.

15 Oct 2007

First high-res 3D structures of first mammalian GRP94 protein solved

Dr. Dan Gewirth, Hauptman-Woodward senior research scientist, has just solved the structure of the first mammalian GRP94 protein implicated in immune diseases such as sepsis, AIDS and certain cancers.

15 Oct 2007

Breast cancer radiation does not affect women's immune system

A new study shows that neither of two commonly used radiation treatments for early-stage, node-negative breast cancer has any effect on a woman's immune system, even though women who receive five-day partial-breast radiation therapy (MammoSite brachytherapy) (PBRT) have improved energy and quality of life compared to women who undergo six weeks of whole-breast radiation therapy (WBRT).

15 Oct 2007

Six years advance warning of Alzheimer's

One of the most distressing aspects of Alzheimer's disease is the difficulty in determining whether mild memory problems are the beginning of an inevitable mental decline.

15 Oct 2007

Animal food allergens unmasked

The relatedness of an animal food protein to a human protein determines whether it can cause allergy, according to new research by scientists from the Institute of Food Research in Norwich and the Medical University of Vienna.

15 Oct 2007

Gene SIRT1 could lead to new cholesterol strategies

MIT researchers have discovered a link between a gene believed to promote long lifespan and a pathway that flushes cholesterol from the body. The finding could help researchers create drugs that lower the risk of diseases associated with high cholesterol, including atherosclerosis (clogged arteries) and Alzheimer's disease.

12 Oct 2007

New genetic understanding of multiple sclerosis patients response to Copaxone

A group of Israeli scientists from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries have recently identified genes responsible for the positive response of many multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to the drug Copaxone.

11 Oct 2007

Immune system protein shows potential as early warning system for lung cancer

An immune system protein could act as an early warning system for lung cancer, reveals research published ahead of print in the journal Thorax.

10 Oct 2007

Rare bone marrow transplant procedure as University of California, San Diego Medical Center

Patients living with Myasthenia Gravis (MG) may breathe easier thanks to a rare bone marrow transplant procedure performed at The Bone Marrow Transplant Program at University of California, San Diego Medical Center, the only program in the western United States that has attempted this procedure.

10 Oct 2007

Feline virus, antiviral drug studied to understand drug resistance

Researchers at Ohio State will spend the next two years testing their theories about just how an AIDS-like virus in cats is able to resist the powerful medicines that are thrown against it.

10 Oct 2007