Immune System News and Research

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Study reveals increased disease risk after early heart surgery

Infections and autoimmune diseases are more common among people who have undergone heart surgery as children and had their thymus removed at the same time, which is often done to get access to the heart. This is evident in a study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

21 Feb 2018

Low protein levels linked to posture and gait problems in Parkinson’s, finds study

A new study has linked low levels of alpha-synuclein in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Parkinson’s to postural instability and gait difficulty.

21 Feb 2018

Immune history influences person's response to flu vaccine

New research on why the influenza vaccine was only modestly effective in recent years shows that immune history with the flu influences a person's response to the vaccine.

20 Feb 2018

Clinical trial studying type 1 diabetes reaches full enrollment

A clinical trial studying type 1 diabetes has reached full enrollment. The Sanford Project: T-Rex Study, a Phase 2 clinical trial conducted collaboratively by Sanford Health and Caladrius Biosciences, Inc., has completed enrollment of 110 children with type 1 diabetes. The study started with two sites at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Fargo, North Dakota, and expanded to 13 additional sites across the United States.

19 Feb 2018

'Click chemistry' approach may improve disease-fighting properties of drugs

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a quick and easy way to simultaneously modify dozens of drugs or molecules to improve their disease-fighting properties.

19 Feb 2018

Early childhood immune signature predicts risk of developing asthma later on

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease driven by the interplay of genetics, environmental factors and a diverse cast of immune cells.

19 Feb 2018

Research finds rising trend in incidence of merkel cell carcinoma

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare type of skin cancer, affecting only a few thousand people each year, compared to tens of thousands with melanoma. But while it may not be as common as other skin cancers, MCC is highly aggressive and often deadly - and it's also becoming more common, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology and presented at the American Academy of Dermatology 2018 Annual Meeting in San Diego.

19 Feb 2018

Shot may help reduce risk of shingles

Anyone who has had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine is at risk for the painful skin condition herpes zoster, more commonly known as shingles. Both diseases are caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which stays in the body after chickenpox clears and may reactivate later in life.

18 Feb 2018

FDA approves first treatment to reduce risk of NSCLC progression

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Imfinzi (durvalumab) for the treatment of patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are not able to be surgically removed (unresectable) and whose cancer has not progressed after treatment with chemotherapy and radiation (chemoradiation).

18 Feb 2018

Study provides new insights on why healthy children die from flu

With this year's severe flu season, one statistic is especially chilling. Each year, around 50 percent of all children under 5 years old who die from the flu were previously healthy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

16 Feb 2018

Stem cell vaccine helps protect mice against numerous cancers, finds study

Lab mice injected with inactivated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) displayed a significant immune response against lung, breast, and skin cancers. The vaccine also prevented relapses in animals with removed tumors.

16 Feb 2018

Gene editing tool used to detect cancer

Researchers have developed a DNA detection system that can detect the presence of bacterial and viral DNA, which could be a valuable diagnostic tool for a range of disorders.

16 Feb 2018

Women using short-acting asthma relievers take longer to become pregnant, study shows

Women with asthma who only use short-acting asthma relievers take longer to become pregnant than other women, according to international research led by the University of Adelaide.

15 Feb 2018

New guidelines offer recommendations for assessment, management of immunotherapy side effects

Immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors is the first of a new generation of immunotherapy treatments, revolutionizing treatment for many different types of cancer. By unleashing the body's immune system to attack cancer, these treatments can send even the most hard-to-treat cancers into lasting remission.

15 Feb 2018

New NK cell-based immunotherapy effective against several types of leukemia

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have explored NK cell-based immunotherapy on patients with treatment-resistant leukemia. The study, which is published in the scientific journal Clinical Cancer Research, shows that the new therapy is effective against several types of leukemia.

15 Feb 2018

Scientists show connection between sugar chains and bone growth

Scientists at the University of York have shown that altering the structure of sugar chains on the surface of stem cells could help promote bone growth in the body.

14 Feb 2018

CAR-T therapy saves life of cancer researcher

About a dozen years ago, Dr. Woodring Wright, a UT Southwestern Professor of Cell Biology, sneezed. It broke one of his vertebrae, the interlocking bones that make up the spinal column.

14 Feb 2018

Scientists test how pathogens interact with artificial organs

Scientists at Imperial College London have become the first in the world to test how pathogens interact with artificial human organs.

14 Feb 2018

Oncolytic virus alerts the immune system to attack tumors

A new UC San Francisco study has shown that a cancer-killing virus currently in clinical trials may function as a cancer vaccine - in addition to killing some cancer cells directly, the virus alerts the immune system to the presence of a tumor, triggering a powerful, widespread immune response that kills cancer cells far outside the virus-infected region.

14 Feb 2018