Immune System News and Research

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Fertility treatment may increase MS disease activity

Findings published in Annals of Neurology suggest that assisted reproduction technology treatment increases multiple sclerosis disease activity.

8 Oct 2012

Liquorice-based nanotech material for sterilizing medical devices

A nanotech material containing an extract from liquorice can be used to sterilize and protect medical devices and implants which include biological components, and protects these functional bio-components during the sterilization process.

8 Oct 2012

NFKB1 gene variant may reduce risk of lung cancer

A variant in a gene involved with inflammation and the immune response is linked with a decreased risk of lung cancer. That is the finding of an analysis published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The results add to the growing body of literature implicating these processes in the development of lung cancer.

8 Oct 2012

CytoDyn announces update on feline immunodeficiency virus therapeutic antibody program

CytoDyn Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the development of new therapies for combating infection with immune deficiency viruses, announced today that it is presenting an update on its Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) therapeutic antibody program at the 19th West Coast Retrovirus meeting in Palm Springs, California.

8 Oct 2012

FDA clears Fenwal's new plasma products

Fenwal Inc., a global leader specializing in separation technologies for blood and cell collection and therapy, announced today it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for two new indications for collection of plasma products on the Fenwal Alyx and Amicus systems.

8 Oct 2012

FMCNA urges dialysis patients to get flu shots

With flu season just around the corner, Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA), the nation's leading network of dialysis facilities, is urging dialysis patients to get flu shots to protect themselves against this common infectious disease. In October, FMCNA will begin offering at no cost to all of its dialysis patients and staff, flu vaccinations, which protect against both seasonal flu and H1N1 swine flu.

6 Oct 2012

NIH awards $2.1M grant to study possible ways to fight cancer

A professor with the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering has won a $2.1 million grant to study the best ways to modify human immune cells to fight against cancer.

6 Oct 2012

Study links PI3Kgamma molecule with multiple sclerosis

A University of Adelaide researcher has published results that suggest a possible new mechanism to control multiple sclerosis (MS).

5 Oct 2012

New prototype mouse model duplicates the human response in rheumatoid arthritis

Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have developed the first animal model that duplicates the human response in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an important step that may enable scientists to discover better medicines to treat the disease.

5 Oct 2012

Patients with eye diseases can benefit from ArtCornea

Blindness is often caused by corneal diseases. The established treatment is a corneal transplant, but in many cases this is not possible and donor corneas are often hard to come by. In the future, an artificial cornea could make up for this deficiency and save the vision of those affected.

5 Oct 2012

Transplant recipients and lymphoma patients far likelier to develop melanoma

Melanoma is on the rise nationally, and transplant recipients and lymphoma patients are far likelier than the average person to get that form of skin cancer and to die from it, a Mayo Clinic review has found.

5 Oct 2012

Sublingual immunotherapy highly effective for chronic allergy and asthma sufferers

Could it be that those with allergic rhinitis (hay fever) and childhood nasal allergies can finally get a break from their allergies and their allergy shots? Chicago's leading allergy, asthma, and immunology expert, Dr. Brian Rotskoff, who treats a large number of Chicago pediatric allergy patients, is happy to say, "Yes!"

5 Oct 2012

New technique has potential to kill off hospital superbugs

Scientists at Queen's University Belfast have developed a new technique which has the potential to kill off hospital superbugs like Pseudomonas aeruginosa, C. difficile and MRSA.

5 Oct 2012

Top-line data from Pfizer’s Prevenar 13 Phase 3 trial on pneumococcal disease

Pfizer Inc. today announced top-line data assessing immunogenicity, tolerability and safety of Prevenar 13 (Pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine [13-valent, absorbed]) in adults 18 to 49 years of age.

5 Oct 2012

RNA clue to MS disease course

Researchers say that the RNA profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells can identify two distinct subsets of patients with multiple sclerosis.

4 Oct 2012

Assisted reproduction technology may increase risk of MS activity among women

Researchers in Argentina report that women with multiple sclerosis (MS) who undergo assisted reproduction technology (ART) infertility treatment are at risk for increased disease activity.

4 Oct 2012

Starting HIV-infected patients on ART reduces food insecurity, improves physical health

Starting HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy reduces food insecurity and improves physical health, thereby contributing to the disruption of a lethal syndemic, UCSF and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have found in a study focused on sub-Saharan Africa.

4 Oct 2012

Modulating immune response to injury could accelerate regeneration of peripheral nerves

Modulating immune response to injury could accelerate the regeneration of severed peripheral nerves, a new study in an animal model has found. By altering activity of the macrophage cells that respond to injuries, researchers dramatically increased the rate at which nerve processes regrew.

4 Oct 2012

Complement dysregulation underpins pre-eclampsia

Pre-eclampsia is associated with increased classical pathway activation and altered complement regulation, suggest Dutch results indicating that the extent of complement dysregulation may be related to the severity of pre-eclampsia.

3 Oct 2012

Haploidentical bone marrow transplants for sickle cell disease: an interview with Dr. Javier Bolaños Meade

Bone marrow transplant (also called stem cell transplant) is a medical intervention that allows a physician to deliver very high doses of chemotherapy (if needed) but more importantly, deliver a new immune system to the patient to fight a disease (such as cancer).

3 Oct 2012