Thymus News and Research

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New study helps explain the immune system’s response to skin infections and skin cancers

It is well established that older adults are more susceptible to infection and their immune systems less capable of generating a strong immune response.

4 May 2022

Study reveals how zinc supports immunity, suggests ways it could be used to improve health

Zinc's immune-boosting properties are well-established, but scientists haven't known exactly how it works.

1 Apr 2022

Study reveals the potential of novel antiviral drug combinations to stop COVID-19 spread

Researchers from Columbia Engineering, Fiocruz's Center for Technological Development in Health and the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Brazil, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Rockefeller University recently reported that, by combining inhibitors of polymerases and exonucleases--enzymes that allow SARS-CoV-2 to reproduce--they were able to reduce SARS-CoV-2 replication 10 times more than when using just the polymerase inhibitors.

7 Mar 2022

Study reveals new way viruses trigger autoimmunity

Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Type 1 diabetes are thought to arise when people with a genetic susceptibility to autoimmunity encounter something in the environment that triggers their immune systems to attack their own bodies.

28 Feb 2022

Yale researchers confirm the health benefits of moderate calorie restrictions in humans

Decades of research has shown that limits on calorie intake by flies, worms, and mice can enhance life span in laboratory conditions. But whether such calorie restriction can do the same for humans remains unclear.

11 Feb 2022

Treatment with immune-boosting protein and radiation improves survival in mice with glioblastoma

Glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer in the brain or spinal cord, has proven stubbornly resistant to newer immunotherapies. And radiation and chemotherapy, the standard treatment for glioblastoma, result in fewer than 10% of patients surviving longer than five years after diagnosis.

19 Jan 2022

Study opens up prospects for using virotherapy to treat central nervous system tumors

In a study conducted at the University of São Paulo's Human Genome and Stem Cell Research Center (HUG-CELL) in Brazil, serial systemic injections of zika virus into mice with brain tumors destroyed the cancer without causing neurological damage or injuring other organs, and increased the animals' survival rate.

11 Jan 2022

White-tailed deer are efficient carriers of SARS-CoV-2

Researchers demonstrate the susceptibility of white-tailed deer to SARS-CoV-2.

20 Dec 2021

NYU Langone Health performs second successful investigational xenotransplantation procedure

Less than two months after the first breakthrough surgery, NYU Langone Health has performed its second successful investigational xenotransplantation procedure using a genetically engineered pig kidney.

13 Dec 2021

First investigational xenotransplantation marks a major step towards adequate organ supply

The first investigational transplant of a genetically engineered, nonhuman kidney to a human body was recently completed at NYU Langone Health—marking a major step forward in potentially utilizing an alternative supply of organs for people facing life-threatening disease.

21 Oct 2021

Vaccinated children induced significantly higher antibody titers than naturally SARS-CoV-2 infected children

A recent preprint discusses the antibody response to the nucleic acid vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 when administered to children aged 7-11 years.

12 Oct 2021

Drug developed at Duke is approved by FDA as only therapy for congenital athymia

The phone rang into the pediatric unit that Louise Markert, M.D., Ph.D., was staffing as a junior faculty member in 1991. Had she not answered, there would have been little hope for the more than one hundred patients who were subsequently treated.

11 Oct 2021

Review explores the role of cellular senescence in lymphoid organ dysfunction and immunosenescence

Aging-US published "Cellular senescence in lymphoid organs and immunosenescence" which reported that immunosenescence is a multi-faceted phenomenon at the root of age-associated immune dysfunction.

5 Oct 2021

B cell activating anti-CD73 antibody for the immunotherapy of COVID-19

Despite the advent of numerous vaccines and the discovery of passive monoclonal antibodies for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), there remains an urgent need for definitive therapies for coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients.

27 Sep 2021

Study reveals mechanism behind male infertility caused by autoimmune disease

Investigators have found that the absence of autoimmune regulator (Aire) in mice results in fertility problems similar to those affecting men with autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type I (APS-1).

19 Aug 2021

Investigational treatment improves survival rate of babies lacking thymus

An investigational treatment pioneered by a Duke Health pediatrician resulted in a one-year survival rate of 77% among children born with a rare condition in which they lack an immune system.

4 Aug 2021

Study looks at potent phytocompounds from Himalayan herbs to treat COVID-19

Considering the antiviral activity of medicinal herbs, a new study published in the journal Current Pharmacology Reports focuses on the identification of potent phytochemicals from Himalayan herbs, namely, Rheum emodi, Thymus serpyllum, and Artemisia annua, for the treatment of COVID-19.

1 Aug 2021

UCSF researchers discover how the immune system may play a role in miscarriage

Researchers at UC San Francisco are zeroing in on how the immune system may play a role in miscarriage, which affects about a quarter of pregnancies.

16 Jul 2021

Beneficial effects of gene therapy can be seen in SCID-X1 patients decades after treatment

An international collaboration between Great Ormond Street Hospital, the UCL GOS Institute for Child Health and Harvard Medical School has shown that the beneficial effects of gene therapy can be seen decades after the transplanted blood stem cells has been cleared by the body.

17 Mar 2021

Researchers explore difference in reactions to SARS-CoV-2 infection between children and adults

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 2.67 million lives in less than a year and a half. However, it is uncommon in children, with less than 2% of the cases being in individuals below the age of 19. Most of these are of mild severity, with the clinical features of severe COVID-19 being rare in this age group.