Immune System News and Research

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Enhancing body's gut defense system can reverse bloodstream infections

An upset in the body's natural balance of gut bacteria that may lead to life-threatening bloodstream infections can be reversed by enhancing a specific immune defense response, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

9 Jun 2015

Findings could lead to new therapies that stop breast cancer progression

Scientists have discovered a trigger that allows breast cancer cells to spread to the lungs. They have found that blocking the signals in mice with breast cancer greatly reduces the number of secondary tumours found in the lungs.

9 Jun 2015

Merck Canada announces conditional approval of KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) for melanoma treatment

Merck Canada Inc. announced today that KEYTRUDATM (pembrolizumab) was authorized for sale with conditions by Health Canada on May 19, 2015. KEYTRUDA is a humanized monoclonal antibody that works by increasing the ability of the body's immune system to fight advanced melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. It is the first of a new class of therapies called anti-PD-1s approved in Canada.

8 Jun 2015

BioLineRx's BL-9020 antibody holds promise in treating Type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes, which usually appears in children and adolescents, affects over 30 million people worldwide. Resulting from an auto-immune reaction that destroys the pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin, the disease leads to pathologically high levels of sugar in the blood and urine, resulting in high rates of morbidity and mortality. The current treatment for Type 1 diabetes is lifetime administration of insulin by injection.

8 Jun 2015

St. Michael's Hospital researchers find novel method to combat flu virus

The flu kills hundreds of thousands of people around the world every year, yet there is essentially only one class of drugs to fight the ever-changing virus. Cases of flu resistant to this class of drugs have already been reported and researchers worry a completely new strain of flu could evolve, leading to a pandemic like the one in 1918 that killed approximately 50 million people.

8 Jun 2015

Researchers identify immune system marker that drives therapy-resistant prostate cancer

You are a patient who has just been treated for a serious illness but neither you nor your doctor knows how likely it is that you -- in comparison with other patients -- will actually be helped by the treatment. This is often the situation with prostate cancer, one of the deadliest and most highly prevalent cancers. While hormone therapy can help, patient responses vary widely, and it's still unclear why some types of prostate cancer seem to be resistant to the therapy.

5 Jun 2015

PQBP1 protein could improve body's immune response to HIV vaccines

In a scientific discovery that has significant implications for preventing HIV infections, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have identified a protein that could improve the body's immune response to HIV vaccines and prevent transmission of the virus.

5 Jun 2015

$Elotuzumab boosts response in relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma$

Elotuzumab boosts response in relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma

Addition of the immunostimulatory antibody elotuzumab to the combination of lenalidomide and dexamethasone improves progression-free survival and the overall response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, research suggests.

4 Jun 2015

Understanding link between polycystic ovary syndrome and diabetes

Nearly 50 percent of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) develop pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes before the age of 40, but the reasons for the correlation was unclear. In a new study in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers report that inflammation is the cause for the increased diabetes risk in women with PCOS.

4 Jun 2015

Penn Medicine researchers explore primary player involved in T cell exhaustion

Sometimes even cells get tired. When the T cells of your immune system are forced to deal over time with cancer or a chronic infection such as HIV or hepatitis C, they can develop 'T cell exhaustion,' becoming less effective and losing their ability to attack and destroy the invaders of the body.

4 Jun 2015

Better treatment, prevention strategies still needed for opportunistic infections related to AIDS

Although treatment advances have dramatically reduced deaths from opportunistic infections related to AIDS, a new study drawing on 30 years of data from more than 20,000 patients in San Francisco suggests there is still ample room to improve. About a third--35 percent--of AIDS patients diagnosed with their first opportunistic infection from 1997 to 2012 in that city died within five years, according to the study, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

4 Jun 2015

Vanderbilt expert offers tips for preventing and treating poison ivy

It's the time of year when backyards attract children, trails beckon hikers, and poison ivy attacks the unwary. This itch-causing plant pest, along with its cohorts poison oak and poison sumac, cause more common allergic reactions than any other source, said Renee Miller, R.N., a certified specialist in poison information at the Tennessee Poison Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

4 Jun 2015

Mary's Place by the Sea - helping women with cancer

Mary’s Place by the Sea is a respite home for women who are receiving treatment for cancer or within one year of post-cancer treatment. They provide services that complement their medical treatment, including oncology massages, individual counseling and nutrition education...

3 Jun 2015

Study: Intravenous nutrition source may significantly reduce toxicity of platinum-based cancer drugs

A single dose of an FDA-approved intravenous nutrition source may be able to significantly reduce the toxicity and increase the bioavailability of platinum-based cancer drugs, according to a study by Carnegie Mellon University biologists published in Scientific Reports.

3 Jun 2015

New article published in Spanish Journal of Pathology highlights a rare case of Hodgkin's lymphoma

Dr. Jerónimo Forteza, Professor of Pathology and Director of the Valencian Institute of Pathology, Catholic University of Valencia "San Vicente Mártir," recently published an article in the Spanish Journal of Pathology on the case of a patient with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Medicine student Pablo Sánchez Vela performed this diagnostic work under the supervision of Dr. Forteza.

3 Jun 2015

Research finding could explain why HIV envelope protein has a long tail

Virologists at Emory University School of Medicine, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta have uncovered a critical detail explaining how HIV assembles its infectious yet stealthy clothing.

3 Jun 2015

National Psoriasis Foundation awards grants to support psoriatic disease research

The National Psoriasis Foundation awarded eight researchers each a one-year, $75,000 Discovery Grant to support the advancement of psoriatic disease research. By gaining a better understanding of the fundamentals of psoriatic disease--what causes psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and what happens in the body when these diseases are present--scientists can work on better treatments and a cure.

3 Jun 2015

Researchers discover new pathway that may be vital for understanding allergic asthma

Researchers at the Centenary Institute have discovered a new pathway that may be vital for our understanding allergic asthma, the most common form of asthma and the prevalent form of childhood-onset asthma affecting 2 million Australians.

3 Jun 2015

Childhood trauma increases vulnerability to different health problems in later life

Long-term changes in immune function caused by childhood trauma could explain increased vulnerability to a range of health problems in later life, according to new research by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London and the NIHR Maudsley BRC.

3 Jun 2015

Nivolumab and pembrolizumab therapies continue to show promise against advanced melanomas

Results of two clinical trials reported at the American Society for Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting 2015 show continued promise of immune therapies nivolumab and pembrolizumab against advanced melanomas, specifically in the context of PD1 signaling that some tumors use to avoid immune system attack. Dr. Rene Gonzalez, MD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and director of the Melanoma Research Clinics at the CU School of Health, is an author of both studies.

2 Jun 2015

Immune System News and Research

Enhancing body's gut defense system can reverse bloodstream infections

Findings could lead to new therapies that stop breast cancer progression

Merck Canada announces conditional approval of KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) for melanoma treatment

BioLineRx's BL-9020 antibody holds promise in treating Type 1 diabetes

St. Michael's Hospital researchers find novel method to combat flu virus

Researchers identify immune system marker that drives therapy-resistant prostate cancer

PQBP1 protein could improve body's immune response to HIV vaccines

Elotuzumab boosts response in relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma

Understanding link between polycystic ovary syndrome and diabetes

Penn Medicine researchers explore primary player involved in T cell exhaustion

Better treatment, prevention strategies still needed for opportunistic infections related to AIDS

Vanderbilt expert offers tips for preventing and treating poison ivy

Mary's Place by the Sea - helping women with cancer

Study: Intravenous nutrition source may significantly reduce toxicity of platinum-based cancer drugs

New article published in Spanish Journal of Pathology highlights a rare case of Hodgkin's lymphoma

Research finding could explain why HIV envelope protein has a long tail

National Psoriasis Foundation awards grants to support psoriatic disease research

Researchers discover new pathway that may be vital for understanding allergic asthma

Childhood trauma increases vulnerability to different health problems in later life

Nivolumab and pembrolizumab therapies continue to show promise against advanced melanomas

Understanding the DNA Damage Response in Innate Immunity eBook

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

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