Immune System News and Research

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Developing a precision 'Trojan Horse' nanotherapy to treat breast cancer

With a nearly $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Michigan State University researchers are using nanoscopic particles to turn the body's own cells into weapons that cancer won't see coming.

9 Oct 2020

Exuberant activation of immune cells in severe COVID-19 resembles lupus

In severe cases of COVID-19, Emory researchers have been observing an exuberant activation of immune cells, resembling acute flares of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease.

9 Oct 2020

Research shows choroid plexus can act as a conduit for prenatal inflammation

Floating in fluid deep in the brain are small, little understood fronds of tissue. Two new studies reveal that these miniature organs are a hotbed of immune system activity.

9 Oct 2020

As Trump touts his ‘great’ COVID drugs, the pharma cash flows to Biden, not him

Pharmaceutical giants Regeneron and Gilead Sciences got the kind of publicity money can't buy this week after President Donald Trump took their experimental drugs for his coronavirus infection, left the hospital and pronounced himself fully recovered.

9 Oct 2020

Transplantation of pig hearts may solve chronic shortage of donor organs

The goal of harvesting hearts from pigs to solve the chronic shortage of these donor organs appears to be in reach, according to a new scientific review by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

9 Oct 2020

Mass production of SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 protein using a chemical-inducible system in tobacco BY-2 cells

Researchers from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) and Ishikawa Prefectural University, Japan, recently attempted to synthesize the ORF8 protein with the help of a chemical-inducible protein production system using tobacco BY-2 cells. This study has been published demonstrated in the preprint server, bioRxiv.

9 Oct 2020

Production of bone substitutes is less complicated than was previously thought

The way in which bone formation occurs needs to be redefined. This was revealed by Radboud university medical center researchers and their colleagues in a publication in Nature Communications.

8 Oct 2020

NIH clinical trial to test a combination treatment regimen for COVID-19

A clinical trial to test the safety, tolerability and efficacy of a combination treatment regimen for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) consisting of the antiviral remdesivir plus a highly concentrated solution of antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has begun.

8 Oct 2020

Overreaction of the immune system could be linked to severe COVID-19 cases

Samples from the lungs of patients show a runaway immune system reaction could be one mechanism behind severe COVID-19 cases.

8 Oct 2020

Researchers identify a promising method to stop COVID-19 infection

While the world waits eagerly for a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infections from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers also are focusing on better understanding how SARS-CoV-2 attacks the body in the search for other means of stopping its devastating impact.

8 Oct 2020

Novel feed ingredient can reduce effects of coccidiosis in broiler chickens

Broiler chicken producers the world over are all too familiar with coccidiosis, a parasite-borne intestinal disease that stalls growth and winnows flocks.

8 Oct 2020

Comet supercomputer performs complex calculations on receptor sequence data from human T cells

While researchers around the world race to develop an effective and safe COVID-19 vaccine, a team from the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego contributed to a study led by Vanderbilt Vaccine Center of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) on T cell receptors, which play a vital role in alerting the adaptive immune system to mount an attack on invading foreign pathogens including the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

8 Oct 2020

Experimental Chinese SARS-CoV-2 vaccine appears safe in early trials

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020 reports the findings of a phase I trial of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, demonstrating that it can elicit a potent immune response without significant adverse reactions.

7 Oct 2020

Proteolytic cleavage of nucleocapsid helps SARS-CoV-2 evade host immune responses

A team of scientists of the University of Oxford reveals that the nucleocapsid protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) undergoes autoproteolysis, and that resulting products can escape the host immune responses and facilitate viral proliferation. The study is currently available on the bioRxiv preprint server.

7 Oct 2020

Multi-center Phase I study of anti-VISTA opens for patient enrollment

Dartmouth and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center will serve as one of the lead institutions for a new multi-center clinical trial of anti-VISTA, now open and recruiting for patient enrollment.

7 Oct 2020

TCR's quantity and clonality are linked to prognosis of colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in the world, with more than one and a half million new cases diagnosed annually.

7 Oct 2020

Study shows how CD4+ T cells respond to SARS-CoV-2 virus

As scientists around the world develop life-saving COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, many are still wondering exactly why the disease proves deadly in some people and mild in others.

7 Oct 2020

A global review of COVID-19 impact on cancer treatment and research

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually every aspect of cancer care and research- from introducing new risks for cancer patients to disrupting the delivery of cancer treatment and the continuity of cancer research, a review of scientific literature shows.

7 Oct 2020

ACGT awards $500,000 grant to advance strategies for treating solid tumors

With a $500,000 Research Grant from Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy, Sidi Chen, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Genetics and Systems Biology Institute at Yale School of Medicine and member of Yale Cancer Center, will advance a versatile and highly scalable strategy he's been developing and calling MAEGI -- Multiplexed Activation of Endogenous Genes as an Immunotherapy.

6 Oct 2020

Study shows how mysterious molecular concept could be used to target diseased cells

A growing area of medicine looks at how cellular binding observed in nature - where molecules like viruses or proteins bind to specific receptors on a cell - can be mimicked to aid drug delivery.

6 Oct 2020