White Blood Cell News and Research

RSS

Tantalizing glimmers about roles of CCR2 gene, Th17 cell and a missing monocyte

An estimated 1.3 million people in the United States suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. The causes behind this chronic disease — which can exhibit itself as pain, swelling, stiffness, deformation, and loss of function in the joints — have eluded scientists for centuries. A new study by UNC researchers offers tantalizing glimmers about the roles of a gene called CCR2, an immune system cell called Th17 cell, and a missing monocyte.

11 Oct 2011

Researchers discover cell differentiation mechanism

Researchers from the Haematopoietic Differentiation and Stem Cell Biology group at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), have described one of the mechanisms by which a cell (from the skin, for example) can be converted into another which is completely different.

4 Oct 2011

Patients with chronic hepatitis C less likely to take medications over time

Patients being treated for chronic hepatitis C become less likely to take their medications over time, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

30 Sep 2011

Percutaneous hepatic perfusion extends survival time for melanoma patients

Melanoma of the eye frequently spreads to the liver and, once this has happened, there is no effective treatment and patients die within an average of two to four months. Only about one in ten patients live for a year. Now, final results from a phase III study have demonstrated that a new treatment significantly extends the time patients can live without the disease progressing.

26 Sep 2011

Novel imaging technique reveals new visual resolution of NK cell action

Scientists reveal in more detail than ever before how white blood cells kill diseased tissue using deadly granules, in research published today in PLoS Biology.

16 Sep 2011

Natural killer white blood cells caught on film

Scientists reveal in more detail than ever before how white blood cells kill diseased tissue using deadly granules, in research published today in PLoS Biology.

14 Sep 2011

Neutrophils linked to growth and spread of cancer

Scripps Research Professor James Quigley, Staff Scientist Elena Deryugina, and colleagues had previously demonstrated that white blood cells known as neutrophils—bone marrow-derived cells that function as "first responders" at sites of acute inflammation—promote the growth of new blood vessels in normal, healthy tissue.

2 Sep 2011

Modified Ecstasy could be effective against cancer: Study

Researchers from Birmingham University have designed a drug similar to the illicit drug Ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) that could be used to treat leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma after making it 100 times more effective at suppressing growth.

22 Aug 2011

NIH-supported project expands genetic research into clinical setting

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researchers have received a $762,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to tailor drug treatments to patients' genomic information.

20 Aug 2011

Single-molecule imaging reveals how cells prepare to interact with biochemical signals

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered that structural elements in the cell play a crucial role in organizing the motion of cell-surface receptors, proteins that enable cells to receive signals from other parts of the organism.

19 Aug 2011

Researchers discover new mechanism that controls ageing in WBCs

Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have discovered a new mechanism controlling ageing in white blood cells.

18 Aug 2011

New research: Blood stem cells can be involved in pathogenesis of CLL

New research suggests that blood stem cells can be involved in the generation of leukemia, even when the leukemia is caused by the abnormal proliferation of mature cells. The study, published by Cell Press in the August 16th issue of the journal Cancer Cell, may guide future strategies aimed at identifying therapeutic targets for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

17 Aug 2011

Scientists identify potential target that could combat allergies of early childhood

A pandemic of ailments called the "allergic march" -- the gradual acquisition of overlapping allergic diseases that commonly begins in early childhood -- has frustrated both parents and physicians. For the last three decades, an explosion of eczema, food allergies, hay fever, and asthma have afflicted children in the United States, the European Union, and many other countries.

16 Aug 2011

Vampire bat causes rabies

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the first death linked to a vampire bat. The victim’s mother reported that her son was bitten by a vampire bat on his heel while he was sleeping. At the time, the bite was not reported or treated in Mexico, where the bite occurred.

15 Aug 2011

Female sex hormone oestrogen could fight against cardiovascular disease

The sex hormone oestrogen could help protect women from cardiovascular disease by keeping the body's immune system in check, new research from Queen Mary, University of London has revealed.

12 Aug 2011

Scientists identify 29 new genetic variants linked to multiple sclerosis

Scientists have identified 29 new genetic variants linked to multiple sclerosis, providing key insights into the biology of a very debilitating neurological disease. Many of the genes -implicated in the study are relevant to the immune system, shedding light onto the immunological pathways that underlie the development of multiple sclerosis.

11 Aug 2011

Researchers team up to combat age-related macular degeneration

A professor at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering has received a $100,000 grant to develop a new technique to fight a disease that gradually destroys vision.

8 Aug 2011

Possible new drug targets for treating diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have discovered a novel interaction between two proteins involved in regulating cell growth that could provide possible new drug targets for treating diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the most common type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

20 Jul 2011

Scientists identify key immune system regulator in white blood cells

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists provide insight into immune system biology and identify the mechanism that keeps white blood cell activity at a minimum until the specific immune response is needed.

18 Jul 2011

Gene therapy may help prevent progression of type 1 diabetes

Increasing a specific protein in areas of the pancreas that produce insulin blocks the immune attack that causes type 1 diabetes, researchers reported in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, published early online.

7 Jul 2011