Autoimmunity News and Research

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Autoimmune Disease is a condition in which the body recognizes its own tissues as foreign and directs an immune response against them.

Discovery in dendritic cell signalling pathways pave way for new therapeutic targets

Scientists from A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) and the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, have discovered another signaling pathway for the activation and apoptosis, or programmed cell death, of dendritic cells. This discovery was published in the advanced online publication of Nature on 15 Jun 2009.

15 Jun 2009

Drug derived from the hydrangea root shows promise for autoimmune disorders

A drug derived from the hydrangea root, used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine, shows promise in treating autoimmune disorders, report researchers from the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston (PCMM/IDI), along with the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.

4 Jun 2009

Cigarette smoking does not affect everyone in same way

Cigarette smoking induced COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a disease that results in severe breathing difficulty. According to World Health Organization (WHO) it is the fourth leading killer worldwide. However the mechanisms responsible for some smokers developing COPD and others evading the disease have not been well understood.

4 Jun 2009

Discovery of gene associated with narcolepsy

Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have identified a gene associated with narcolepsy, a disorder that causes disabling daytime sleepiness, sleep attacks, irresistible bouts of sleep that can strike at any time, and disturbed sleep at night. The gene has a known role in the immune system, which strongly suggests that autoimmunity, in which the immune system turns against the body's own tissues, plays an important role in the disorder.

3 May 2009

Autoantibodies may be created in response to bacterial DNA

Autoimmune diseases have long been regarded as illnesses in which the immune system creates autoantibodies to attack the body itself. But today, researchers at the California non-profit Autoimmunity Research Foundation (ARF) explain that the antibodies observed in autoimmune disease actually result from alteration of human genes and gene products by hidden bacteria.

27 Apr 2009

Scientists improve immune response to cancer

A team of scientists at The Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research (CFIBCR) at Princess Margaret Hospital and international collaborators have discovered how to trigger an improved immune response to cancer that could be included in new clinical trials that use a patient's own cells to destroy tumours.

26 Apr 2009

Vaccine for Coeliac disease could mean the end of gluten free diets

Australian scientists have developed an experimental vaccine to treat coeliac disease. The team at the Walter and Eliza Hall (WEHI) Institute in Melbourne are hoping a phase 1 clinical trial of the vaccine, due to begin this month, will eventually lead to an effective clinical treatment for the disease.

15 Apr 2009

Deficiency in vitamin D may exacerbate autoimmune disease

Deficiency in vitamin D has been widely regarded as contributing to autoimmune disease, but a review appearing in Autoimmunity Reviews explains that low levels of vitamin D in patients with autoimmune disease may be a result rather than a cause of disease and that supplementing with vitamin D may actually exacerbate autoimmune disease.

9 Apr 2009

Dendritic cells ensure immune tolerance

One of the most important tasks of the immune system is to identify what is foreign and what is self. If this distinction fails, then the body's own structures will be attacked, the result of which could be an autoimmune disease such as diabetes mellitus type 1 or multiple sclerosis. The only way to protect against these afflictions is to destroy all immune factors that turn against the body's own tissue - in other words: immune tolerance.

16 Mar 2009

Scientists unveil a new path towards better immune responses

The immune response can protect us from basically any invader but it can also create disease - like it happens in autoimmunity where it attacks the own body - so to understand its regulation is an important tool to assure its proper functioning.

11 Mar 2009

A vaccine for multiple sclerosis

Apitope Technology Ltd is a biopharmaceutical company that specialises in developing treatments for allergy and autoimmune diseases.

11 Mar 2009

Genetic mutations suggest link between type 1 diabetes and common viral infection

Scientists from Cambridge University have discovered four rare mutations of a gene associated with type 1 diabetes (T1D) that reduce the risk of developing the disease.

5 Mar 2009

Discovery of gene that modifies severity of cystic fibrosis lung disease

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and colleagues, have identified a gene that modifies the severity of lung disease in people with cystic fibrosis, a lethal genetic condition. The findings open the door to possible new targets for treatment, researchers say.

3 Mar 2009

Discovery of gene that modifies severity of cystic fibrosis lung disease

Researchers have discovered a gene that modifies the severity of lung disease in people with the lethal genetic condition, cystic fibrosis, pointing to possible new targets for treatment, according to a new study in Nature.

25 Feb 2009

Guidance for evaluating menopause-like condition in girls and young women

A comprehensive plan to help health care professionals diagnose and treat primary ovarian insufficiency-a menopause-like condition affecting girls and young women that may occur years before normal menopause is expected-has been developed by a scientist at the National Institutes of Health.

5 Feb 2009