Immune System News and Research

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New clinical trials to investigate combination immunotherapy for treating advanced cancers

City of Hope physician-scientists recently opened two clinical trials to investigate a combination of cytokines and immunotherapy that may be able to transform nearly-impossible-to-treat cancer into a disease that can be corralled into remission.

8 Apr 2019

Gut microbiome may drive HIV transmission risk in high-risk men

Gut microbes from high HIV-risk men who have sex with men drive immune activation in mice and HIV infection in cells, according to a study published April 4 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Brent Palmer and Catherine Lozupone of the University of Colorado Anschutz, and colleagues.

8 Apr 2019

Researchers identify gut protein essential for neonatal mice to fight infections

Scientists have identified a protein critical to the immune system development and antibody production in mice, which could contribute to understanding the gut defense mechanism in infants.

8 Apr 2019

Candida auris – a dangerous drug resistant fungi on the rise

Candida auris – a fungus, is one of the newest organisms to plague humans with its resistant nature. It is as present resistant to the available antifungal agents and is emerging as a threat around the world.

8 Apr 2019

Common food preservative may influence effectiveness of flu vaccines

Michigan State University scientists have linked a common food preservative to an altered immune response that possibly hinders flu vaccines.

8 Apr 2019

New HIV drug that is like a "Swiss Army knife of immunotherapies"

HIV is a tricky virus that causes a unique phenomenon where the virus hides within the immune cells of patients when they are on treatment with the antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs. When they are off the drugs, the virus comes back.

7 Apr 2019

Patients on immunotherapies should consume more fiber, fewer probiotics

A new study has found that taking probiotics could drastically reduce the response of cancer patients to immunotherapy. Patients on a fiber-rich diet showed a five-fold increase in response.

5 Apr 2019

Promising diagnostic, prognostic tools for onset and progression of ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a motor neuron disease with rampant progression and that it is typically fatal within 5 years of prognosis.

5 Apr 2019

Newly developed melanin nanoparticles could slow tumor growth

The dark skin pigment melanin protects us from the sun's damaging rays by absorbing light energy and converting it to heat.

5 Apr 2019

Research unravels possible factor for female bias in lupus

The autoimmune disease lupus, which can cause fatigue, a facial rash, and joint pain, strikes females far more often than males. Eight-five percent of people with lupus are female, and their second X chromosome seems partly to blame.

5 Apr 2019

Popular weed killer’s alleged link to cancer spreads concern

Clumps of dandelions have popped up in your yard, so you reach for a bottle of Roundup, the popular weed killer. It is known for being very effective, but its main ingredient, glyphosate, is getting a lot of attention because of lawsuits alleging links to cancer.

4 Apr 2019

Ground-breaking research helps better understand the threat posed by antifungal drug resistance

Ground-breaking work by university experts in Tennessee, Texas and Swansea is helping develop a better understanding of the growing threat posed by antifungal drug resistance.

4 Apr 2019

New immune-based therapy eliminates HPV in one-third of women with cervical precancerous lesions

A potential new immune-based therapy to treat precancers in the cervix completely eliminated both the lesion and the underlying HPV infection in a third of women enrolled in a clinical trial.

4 Apr 2019

New all-in-one immunotherapy approach kicks out hiding HIV and also kills it

In a first on the quest to cure HIV, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health scientists report today in EBioMedicine that they've developed an all-in-one immunotherapy approach that not only kicks HIV out of hiding in the immune system, but also kills it.

4 Apr 2019

Study identifies possible way to predict which melanomas are hot and cold

Melanomas tend to be "hot" or "cold" - if they're hot, immunotherapy lights melanoma tumors like beacons for elimination by the immune system; but 40-50 percent of melanomas are cold, making them invisible to the immune system, and patients with cold tumors tend to show little benefit from immunotherapies.

4 Apr 2019