Immune Response News and Research

RSS

Discovery of biological markers that may indicate poor breast cancer prognosis

A team of researchers has found an association between breast cancer survival and two proteins that, when present in the blood in high levels, are indicators of inflammation.

26 May 2009

ImmunoVaccine Technologies partners with FIT Biotech to advance therapeutic HIV vaccine

ImmunoVaccine Technologies Inc. (IVT), a Canadian vaccine development company, announced a research partnership with FIT Biotech, a Finland-based , clinical stage company that develops DNA vaccines. This research will formulate FIT Biotech's GTU MultiHIV DNA plasmid with IVT's DepoVax vaccine delivery system to advance a therapeutic HIV vaccine.

26 May 2009

Immune genes adapt to parasites

Thank parasites for making some of our immune proteins into the inflammatory defenders they are today, according to a population genetics study that will appear in the June 8 issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine (online May 25).

25 May 2009

Tuberculosis can evade immune response

Current research suggests that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can evade the immune response. The related report by Rahman et al, "Compartmentalization of immune responses in human tuberculosis: few CD8+ effector T cells but elevated levels of FoxP3+ regulatory T cells in the granulomatous lesions," appears in the June 2009 issue of The American Journal of Pathology.

22 May 2009

Arsenic exposure linked to influenza A (H1N1) susceptibility

The ability to mount an immune response to influenza A (H1N1) infection is significantly compromised by a low level of arsenic exposure that commonly occurs through drinking contaminated well water, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Dartmouth Medical School have found.

20 May 2009

Bacteria of the Yersinia genus possess a unique protein thermometer

Bacteria are experts at adaptation: as soon as they have infected an organism, they adapt their metabolism to that of their host and produce substances which protect them from the body's immune defences. How they do this is still unknown in the case of many types of bacteria.

20 May 2009

Research may lead to improved TB vaccines

A team of Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators has cracked one of clinical medicine's enduring mysteries - what happened to the tuberculosis vaccine. The once-effective vaccine no longer prevents the bacterial lung infection that kills more than 1.7 million people worldwide each year.

19 May 2009

Salmonella’s weakness for sugar predicts its downfall

For the first time UK scientists have shown what the food poisoning bug Salmonella feeds on to survive as it causes infection: glucose.

19 May 2009

Researchers look at eczema asthma link

Many young children who get a severe skin rash develop asthma months or years later. Doctors call the progression from eczema, or atopic dermatitis, to breathing problems the atopic march. In the May 2009 issue of PLoS Biology, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report another step taken towards understanding the process of atopic march.

18 May 2009

Disruption of immune-system pathway key step in cancer progression

Human immune cells communicate constantly with one another as they coordinate to fight off infection and other threats.

18 May 2009

Vaccine candidate successful in blocking Simian version of HIV

Researchers have successfully blocked SIV, the simian version of HIV, using a new technique that could help lead to the development of an effective HIV/AIDS vaccine, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The team also included scientists from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and the New England Primate Research Center in Boston.

18 May 2009

Computer simulation captures immune response to flu

Researchers have successfully tested first the first time a computer simulation of major portions of the body's immune reaction to influenza type A, with implications for treatment design and preparation ahead of future pandemics, according to work accepted for publication, and posted online, by the Journal of Virology.

18 May 2009

Amino acid glutamine show promise in treating stomach ulcers

Nearly 20 years ago, it was discovered that bacteria known as Helicobacter pylori were responsible for stomach ulcers. Since then, antibiotics have become the primary therapy used to combat the H. pylori infection, which affects approximately six percent of the world population and is also a primary cause of stomach cancer. But today the bacteria is growing increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

17 May 2009

Chronic infection clearly linked to key immunity protein

The reason deadly infections like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C never go away is because these viruses disarm the body's defense system.

15 May 2009

Baylor Research Institute receives multi-million dollar grant to develop flu vaccine

Scientists at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR) in Dallas, part of Baylor Research Institute (BRI) and the Baylor Health Care System, announced today that they received a renewal of a multi-million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to design new vaccines to prevent influenza - including swine flu (H1N1).

13 May 2009

New insights into immune exhaustion

A main reason why viruses such as HIV or hepatitis C persist despite a vigorous initial immune response is exhaustion. The T cells, or white blood cells, fighting a chronic infection eventually wear out.

13 May 2009

New mathematical model predicts immune response to influenza A virus

Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a mathematical model to predict immune responses to infection with influenza A viruses, including novel viruses such as the emergent 2009 influenza A (H1N1). This model examines the contributions of specific sets of immune cells in fighting influenza A virus.

13 May 2009

New genetic clues to treatment of hypertension

An international research team has identified a number of unsuspected genetic variants associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and hypertension (high blood pressure), suggesting potential avenues of investigation for the prevention or treatment of hypertension.

12 May 2009

Money from Bill and Melinda Gates will help beat Dengue fever in Australia

The University of Queensland (UQ) has won a grant of $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fight dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases.

11 May 2009

Study reveals current multi-component vaccines may need reworking

Current strategies for designing vaccines against HIV and cancers, for instance, may enable some components in multi-component vaccines to cancel the effect of others on the immune system, eliminating their ability to provide protection, according to an article to be published shortly in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

7 May 2009