Immune Response News and Research

RSS

GSK's Cervarix receives positive opinion in Europe

GlaxoSmithKline has announced that its cervical cancer candidate vaccine received a positive opinion from the European Committee for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) for the prevention of precancerous lesions (high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia - CIN grades 2 and 3) and cervical cancer causally related to human papillomavirus types 16 and 18.

19 Jul 2007

Test of universal influenza vaccine

A universal influenza vaccine that has been pioneered by researchers from VIB and Ghent University is being tested for the first time on humans by the British-American biotech company Acambis.

18 Jul 2007

Curry chemical bisdemethoxycurcumin may clear amyloid beta plaques

FINDINGS: Researchers isolated bisdemethoxycurcumin, the active ingredient of curcuminoids – a natural substance found in turmeric root – that may help boost the immune system in clearing amyloid beta, a peptide that forms the plaques found in Alzheimer's disease.

17 Jul 2007

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells suppress anti-tumor response to cancer

Scientists at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere say they have mapped out an escape route that cancers use to evade the body's immune system, allowing the disease to spread unchecked.

17 Jul 2007

First mouse model of lung transplantation

Lung transplants have been performed successfully for more than 20 years in humans but never before in mice – until now.

12 Jul 2007

White blood cells are picky about sugar

Biology textbooks are blunt - neutrophils are mindless killers. These white blood cells patrol the body and guard against infection by bacteria and fungi, identifying and destroying any invaders that cross their path. But new evidence, which may lead to better drugs to fight deadly pathogens, indicates that neutrophils might actually distinguish among their targets.

11 Jul 2007

How the HIV virus mutates to escape the body's immune system

A pioneering collaborative study has discovered how the HIV virus evades the human body's immune system.

9 Jul 2007

Researchers discover why some mosquitoes are resistant to malaria

A team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers has discovered why some mosquitoes are resistant to malaria, a finding that may one day help fight a disease that afflicts and kills millions of people.

9 Jul 2007

Are we looking at cancer vaccine trials the wrong way?

Ongoing therapeutic cancer vaccine trials have yet to show evidence of vaccines spurring a patient's immune system to shrink tumors -- yet patients who receive these vaccines in trials tend to live longer and respond better to subsequent treatment.

4 Jul 2007

Rethinking therapeutic cancer vaccine trials

3 Jul 2007

Food allergy sufferers offered hope of new treatment

In a joint UK and Italian study scientists say they have discovered a possible treatment for people who suffer from food allergies.

3 Jul 2007

Scientists discover role of ataxia telangiectasia mutated protein in DNA repair

Scientists from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and Integrative Bioinformatics Inc. have made an important discovery about the role of an enzyme called ataxia telangiectasia mutated protein (ATM) in the body's ability to repair damaged DNA.

28 Jun 2007

Trial shows CERVARIX cervical cancer candidate vaccine effective

Results from an interim analysis of a Phase III study show that CERVARIX, the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) cervical cancer candidate vaccine, provides up to 100 percent protection against advanced precancerous lesions caused by the most common types of human papillomavirus, types 16 and 18.

28 Jun 2007

Chronic methamphetamine abuse linked to cardiovascular disease

The study is being published the week of June 25 in an advanced online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

26 Jun 2007

Vaccine for human cytomegalovirus

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences have patented a strategy for developing a human vaccine to prevent against Human Cytomegalovirus (hCMV) infection and disease.

23 Jun 2007

Invertebrate immune systems are anything but simple

A hundred years since Russian microbiologist Elie Metschnikow first discovered the invertebrate immune system, scientists are only just beginning to understand its complexity.

23 Jun 2007

PepTcell vaccine could provide immunity against all strains of influenza virus

Previously undisclosed pre-clinical data showing how a new flu vaccine has the potential to protect against all strains of influenza, including pandemic and annual, was presented by PepTcell, at the 2007 Options for the Control of Influenza VI (Options) Conference, in Toronto, Canada.

20 Jun 2007

Acquired DNA key to certain bacterial infection

Researchers announced this week the discovery of a mechanism by which Mycobacterium avium - a bacterium which can result in serious lung infections and is prevalent in emphysema and AIDS patients among others - infects tissue cells or macrophages and thus compromises the body's immunity.

19 Jun 2007

Common DNA variations underlie susceptibility to fever after smallpox vaccination

Their finding is the first to link individual differences written into the genetic code with a vaccine-related complication, albeit a mild one.

19 Jun 2007

Antitumor vaccine

How can we induce the body to use its own weapon, the immune system, to battle cancer" In principle, by the same means used against infectious diseases: immunization.

18 Jun 2007