Immune System News and Research

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Research performed in anemic mice shows acetate stimulates the formation of red blood cells

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers seeking novel treatments for anemia found that giving acetate, the major component of household vinegar, to anemic mice stimulated the formation of new red blood cells.

30 Sep 2014

Early exposure to marijuana can lead to immune-related diseases in adulthood

When it comes to using marijuana, new research, involving mice and published in the October 2014 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, suggests that just because you can do it, doesn't mean that you should. That's because a team of Italian scientists have found that using marijuana in adolescence may do serious long-term damage to the immune system.

30 Sep 2014

Gut microbe in patients may tip doctors about SCID

Many people recognize "the bubble boy" as an unusual character from a "Seinfeld" episode or a John Travolta movie.

30 Sep 2014

Brain cancer patients can benefit from Rapamycin drug

Every day, organ transplant patients around the world take a drug called rapamycin to keep their immune systems from rejecting their new kidneys and hearts.

30 Sep 2014

U-M researchers describe new approach to discovering potential cancer treatments

Researchers at the University of Michigan have described a new approach to discovering potential cancer treatments that requires a fraction of the time needed for more traditional methods.

30 Sep 2014

Prenatal maternal stress exposure to Quebec ice storm predicts epigenetic profile of offspring

The number of days an expectant mother was deprived of electricity during Quebec's Ice Storm (1998) predicts the epigenetic profile of her child, a new study finds.

30 Sep 2014

Seven NIH research contracts awarded to identify novel adjuvant candidates

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded seven research contracts to discover and characterize new adjuvants, or substances formulated as part of vaccines to enhance their protective ability.

30 Sep 2014

PD-L1 protein could be a potential immunotherapy target for malignant pleural mesothelioma

Treating patients with high-dose radiotherapy after chemotherapy and surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma does not achieve improvements in local relapse and overall survival, according to data from a prospective randomized phase II trial presented at ESMO 2014 Congress in Madrid.

30 Sep 2014

Finding ways to rejuvenate "immunological age" of the brain

How the brain ages is still largely an open question - in part because this organ is mostly insulated from direct contact with other systems in the body, including the blood and immune systems. In research that was recently published in Science, Weizmann Institute researchers Prof. Michal Schwartz of the Neurobiology Department and Dr. Ido Amit of Immunology Department found evidence of a unique "signature" that may be the "missing link" between cognitive decline and aging.

30 Sep 2014

Nivolumab drug achieves superior response rates in previously-treated advanced melanoma patients

The monoclonal antibody nivolumab achieves superior response rates and a longer duration of response than standard chemotherapy in patients whose melanoma has progressed after treatment with ipilimumab, according to phase III data presented at the ESMO 2014 Congress in Madrid, Spain.

30 Sep 2014

Arisaph Pharmaceuticals receives STTR grants to develop cancer drug candidates

Arisaph Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on discovery and development of novel therapies for cardiometabolic diseases and cancer, announced today that it has been awarded a phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant and a supplemental phase I grant, both from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

29 Sep 2014

Early detection of cancers on the horizon with supersensitive nanodevice

Extremely early detection of cancers and other diseases is on the horizon with a supersensitive nanodevice being developed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville in collaboration with The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering in Greensboro, NC.

29 Sep 2014

Researchers create new Cas9 animal model for in vivo genome editing experiments

Researchers from the Broad Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a new mouse model to simplify application of the CRISPR-Cas9 system for in vivo genome editing experiments.

29 Sep 2014

Study provides support for new understanding of the immune system

A study published in the journal Science provides support for a new-and still controversial-understanding of the immune system. The research was conducted by collaborators in the U.S. and Europe, including Robert Cramer, PhD, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the Geisel School of Medicine and member of the Dartmouth Lung Biology Center, and Kelly Shepherdson, PhD, at the time a graduate student in Cramer's lab.

29 Sep 2014

New comic book explains to children about Primary Immunodeficiency

Primary Immunodeficiency (PID) refers to a group of disorders characterised by limited or absent function of the immune system. The majority of PIDs are inherited defects meaning that a component is either missing or does not function normally, resulting in increased susceptibility to infection. About 1 in 500 people are born with PID and doctors’ estimate that approximately 5,000 people may be affected by PID in the UK.

27 Sep 2014