Immune System News and Research

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Discovery of new type of immune cell in breast ducts

Australian researchers from Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have discovered a new form of immune cells within the ducts of the breast that keeps the breasts healthy. The study was published this week in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

27 Apr 2020

Consumer beware: Coronavirus antibody tests are still a work in progress

After hearing for months about serious access issues involving tests that diagnose COVID-19 based on swabs from the nose or throat, Americans are being inundated with reports about promising new tests that look for signs of infection in the blood.

27 Apr 2020

Patients with aggressive form of skin cancer can benefit from new type of immunotherapy

In what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind study to evaluate the safety of a type of immunotherapy before surgery in patients with an aggressive form of skin cancer, researchers report that the treatment eliminated pathologic evidence of cancer in nearly half of the study participants undergoing surgery.

27 Apr 2020

Study can lead the way to new treatment methods for hepatitis C in infants

Only about five per cent of the babies born to mothers with hepatitis C are themselves infected by the disease.

27 Apr 2020

Scientists decode herpes simplex virus 1

Until now, scientists had assumed that there are about 80 so-called open reading frames (ORFs) in the genome of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1).

27 Apr 2020

Mapping complex peripheral immune response to severe COVID-19

In a recent article publicly available at medRxiv, researchers from Stanford have presented a single-cell atlas of the peripheral immune response to coronavirus disease (COVID-19), highlighting pertinent immunological features associated with the severe forms of the disease.

26 Apr 2020

UCLA scientists receive awards to pursue treatments and vaccines for COVID-19

Three researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have received awards to pursue treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state's stem cell agency.

25 Apr 2020

Shortage of coronavirus 'cure' puts pregnant lupus sufferers and their babies at risk

Pregnant lupus sufferers and their babies are at risk as global supplies of an anti-malarial medicine used to treat the disease run dry due to COVID-19 panic.

24 Apr 2020

Active ingredient from parasite larvae could help treat asthma

The larvae of the roundworm Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri (Hpb) need a very special environment in order to survive: They have to invade the mucosal layer of the intestine in rodents, the only place where they can then develop into adult worms capable of reproduction.

24 Apr 2020

Syphilis bacterium likely uses a single gene to evade immune attack

The bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum, likely uses a single gene to escape the immune system, research from UW Medicine in Seattle suggests.

24 Apr 2020

Vaping, opioid addiction accelerate coronavirus risks, says NIDA director

In 2018, opioid overdoses claimed about 47,000 American lives. Last year, federal authorities reported that 5.4 million middle and high school students vaped. And just two months ago, about 2,800 cases of vaping-associated lung injuries resulted in hospitalizations; 68 people died.

24 Apr 2020

Research shows how the immune system reacts to hepatitis C viruses

If a virus penetrates a cell, the immune system reacts immediately and produces the signaling protein interferon.

24 Apr 2020

Goblet cells in the human nasal passage may play key role in enabling COVID-19 infections

Two significant international studies involving hundreds of scientists, including a human geneticist at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, suggest that specific cells in the human nasal passage shaped like a champagne glass, known as goblet cells, may play a significant role in enabling COVID-19 infections.

24 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

Study: JNK and BNP activity can reverse cardiovascular damage, reduce risk of death from sepsis

Overreaction is rarely useful, and in the case of the human immune system, it can be outright deadly. When the body overreacts to an infection, the result is sepsis - a life-threatening condition that frequently leads to acute organ dysfunction, including deterioration of the heart and blood vessels, which make up the cardiovascular system.

24 Apr 2020

Dietary supplements are effective and low-cost means to fight COVID-19

Supplements containing vitamins C and D and other micronutrients, sometimes in amounts exceeding the federally recommended levels, are a safe, effective and low-cost means of helping your immune system fight off COVID-19 and other acute respiratory tract diseases, an Oregon State University researcher says.

24 Apr 2020

First COVID-19-related clinical trial to start in Germany

German regulators have approved the first clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine. Developed by BioNTech SE, an immunotherapy company, and Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company, the potential coronavirus vaccine has completed pre-clinical studies in Germany.

24 Apr 2020

Coronavirus may cause sudden stroke in younger patients, doctors warn

Older adults and those with underlying medical conditions are at risk of experiencing severe coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Younger people appeared to experience only mild illness, but doctors warn that the viral infection may cause sudden strokes.

23 Apr 2020

New nanobiosensor can help diagnose early-stage multiple sclerosis

Researchers at the Federal University of São Carlos in Sorocaba have developed a technique to diagnose early-stage multiple sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system, and distinguish it from neuromyelitis optica, a rare yet severe autoimmune inflammatory process also affecting the central nervous system.

23 Apr 2020

Link between BCG and lower COVID-19 mortality disproved by new analysis

The association between BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) vaccination and its purported beneficial effect on COVID-19 transmission/mortality rates was challenged in an expert appraisal of Diamond Princess cruise ship data. At the same time, cross-national differences previously reported were shown to be flawed, reports a new medRxiv study.

23 Apr 2020