Phagocytosis News and Research

RSS

Researchers report a liquid biopsy for COVID-19

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in July 2020 reports the potential of cell-free DNA as a marker of the severity of disease in COVID-19. This could help triage patients as well as provide a prognostic marker.

30 Jul 2020

CU researchers discover key role of specific brain cells during development

Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have identified how specific brain cells interacting during development could be related to neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases, including some that occur later in life.

9 Jul 2020

How an ignored white blood cell may cause COVID-19 deaths

News-Medical speaks to Professor Lola Eniola-Adefeso about her research investigating how an ignored white blood cell may cause COVID-19 deaths.

19 Jun 2020

Anti-RBD antibodies shown to neutralize active SARS-CoV-2

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* in June 2020 reports the discovery of multiple severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies in samples from healthy donors, collected before the pandemic. These antibodies are capable of inhibiting the binding of the spike protein of the virus to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) molecule and can neutralize active infection of cells in culture.

9 Jun 2020

Stem cell model sheds new light on the devastating process of neurodegeneration

A new study published today in Neuron led by The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute's Valentina Fossati, Ph.D., creates astrocytes - an integral support cell in the brain - from stem cells and shows that in disease-like environments, these normally helpful cells can turn into neuron-killers.

1 Jun 2020

Microbiome controls the fitness of our immune system

Working alongside colleagues in Mainz, Bern, Hannover and Bonn, researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Berlin Institute of Health and the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin were able to show how the microbiome helps to render the immune system capable of responding to pathogens.

11 May 2020

Using neutralising antibodies in the fight against COVID-19

While many scientists and pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine, there is also an urgent need for a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment. The potent virus has now spread to 210 countries and territories, affecting more than 3.04 million people. Now, a team of German scientists is working on using antibodies to prevent and treat COVID-19.

27 Apr 2020

Combination therapy boosts the immune system's appetite for cancer

A combination of immunotherapy agents that encourages some immune cells to eat cancer cells and alert others to attack tumors put mice with a deadly type of brain cancer called glioblastoma into long-term remission, a new study led by UT Southwestern scientists suggests.

24 Apr 2020

Microglia play a dual role in regulating the permeability of blood-brain barrier, study shows

The blood-brain barrier is a layer of cells that covers the blood vessels in the brain and regulates the entry of molecules from the blood into the brain.

28 Feb 2020

Study sheds new light on the immune system’s ability to deal with co-infection

The body’s immune response to fungal infections changes when a patient is also infected by a virus, according to new research which investigated the two types of infection together for the first time.

26 Feb 2020

Lipid signaling from beta cells linked to inflammatory macrophage polarization

Do the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas unwittingly produce a signal that aids their own demise in Type 1 diabetes?

23 Feb 2020

How malaria evades the body’s immune response

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. In 2018, there were over 200 million cases of malaria worldwide. Now, a team of researchers found evidence that the malaria parasite can detect a molecule released by approaching immune cells, using it to protect itself and evade the attack by the body’s immune system.

19 Feb 2020

Turning stink into therapy for atherosclerosis

In an amusing but amazing turnaround, it seems the most foul-smelling compound on earth, called putrescine, could help relieve chronic inflammation, most importantly in the arterial thickening called atherosclerosis. This discovery is reported in the journal Cell Metabolism in January 2020.

30 Jan 2020

Radiation-induced brain damage: new study reveals the mechanism

Following radiation therapy to the head for brain tumors, more than 80% of patients who live six months at least after the treatment report a loss of some cognitive functions such as memory, thinking and related tasks. Now a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports shows why this happens, which in turn could pave the way to correct this damage and protect the brain in future patients.

17 Dec 2019

Study shows how a protein in the brain could protect against Alzheimer’s

Research shows that white blood cells in the human brain are regulated by a protein called CD33--a finding with important implications in the fight against Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study by University of Alberta chemists.

13 Dec 2019

Scientists develop new method for targeted drug delivery to cancer cells

A team of scientists from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University together with their colleagues developed a method of targeted drug delivery to cancer cells.

13 Dec 2019

Scientists develop a method of targeted drug delivery to cancer cells

A team of scientists from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University together with their colleagues developed a method of targeted drug delivery to cancer cells. The discovery is based on the use of mesenchymal stem cells and microcapsules made of polymeric compounds.

9 Dec 2019

Newly developed cell models can open up new avenues for ocular drug discovery

Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland have developed two new cell models that can open up new avenues for ocular drug discovery. The new cell models are continuously growing retinal pigment epithelial cells, which have many benefits over the models currently used by researchers and pharmaceutical companies. The models were developed by Professor Arto Urtti's Ocular Drug Delivery group at the University of Eastern Finland.

4 Dec 2019

New model for late-onset sepsis explores potential treatments for neonatal infection

Extremely premature infants are at risk for life-threatening infections that spread into their bodies from the intestine. Infections after the first three days of life are called late-onset sepsis, or LOS.

3 Dec 2019

Vaping wrecks immune cell function, increases infection risk

A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that e-cigarettes have toxic effects on neutrophils function, making them a threat to human health by increasing the likelihood of infection with Gram-negative bacteria.

17 Nov 2019