Immune System News and Research

RSS

Gamers solve molecular structure of retrovirus enzyme

Gamers have solved the structure of a retrovirus enzyme whose configuration had stumped scientists for more than a decade. The gamers achieved their discovery by playing Foldit, an online game that allows players to collaborate and compete in predicting the structure of protein molecules.

19 Sep 2011

New York Times examines international response to Somali famine

"Twenty years after the central government collapsed," Somalia is facing drought, food insecurity and conflict larger in scale than when famine conditions hit the nation in the 1990s, "[a]nd given the world's limited interest in a major intervention, that is not likely to change anytime soon," the New York Times reports in a news analysis on the situation.

17 Sep 2011

Novel therapies remove the brakes cancer puts on the immune system

Some of the newest therapies in the war on cancer remove the brakes cancer puts on the immune system, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers report.

17 Sep 2011

New insight into how nervous system regulates immunity

Scientists have identified a surprising new role for a new type of T cell in the immune system: some of them can be activated by nerves to make a neurotransmitter (acetylcholine) that blocks inflammation. The discovery of these T cells is novel and suggests that it may be possible to treat inflammation and autoimmune diseases by targeting the nerves and the T cells. The study was published this week in Science.

17 Sep 2011

Vesicular stomatitis virus kills cancer cells

In a new project, researchers from LIFE - the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen - document that the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) plays a previously unknown dual role in the prevention of a number of cancers. The new findings show that the virus both kills cancer cells and stops the expression of the molecules which certain types of cancer cells produce to hide from the immune system.

17 Sep 2011

Adult stem cells hold hope for treatment of lupus

With a patient's own adult stem cells, there is new hope for the intractable autoimmune disease lupus - systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) - which is difficult to cure.

17 Sep 2011

PopART project awarded $37 million study grant for HIV prevention in Africa

A team of researchers led by Professor Richard Hayes at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has been awarded $37 million to test an innovative combination of strategies to prevent HIV in African countries.

16 Sep 2011

Follow-up study of HIV vaccine trial provides clues for continued research

"After two years of analyzing the results of the largest AIDS vaccine clinical trial ever held -- called RV144 -- researchers say they have found two ways the immune system can respond, which could predict whether those inoculated will be protected or are more likely to become infected with HIV," CNN's health blog "The Chart" reports.

16 Sep 2011

Novel imaging technique reveals new visual resolution of NK cell action

Scientists reveal in more detail than ever before how white blood cells kill diseased tissue using deadly granules, in research published today in PLoS Biology.

16 Sep 2011

Animals burn protein during long, cold hibernation

When Arctic ground squirrels are getting ready to hibernate they don't just get fat - they pack on muscle at a rate that would make a bodybuilder jealous. And they do it without suffering the harmful effects that high levels of testosterone and other anabolic steroids usually cause. University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) researchers have started to untangle how the squirrels manage it, and their results could someday have implications for human health.

16 Sep 2011

Experimental malaria vaccine shows positive results among children in small Burkina Faso study

"An experimental malaria vaccine tested on children in Burkina Faso has shown 'a high level of efficacy' in protecting against the disease, a study published in" Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine said, according to Agence France-Presse.

16 Sep 2011

Probiotics appear to protect against upper respiratory tract infections

Taking probiotics seems to provide both children and adults with a mild degree of protection against many upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) including the common cold, according to a new systematic review. People who consume probiotics are also less likely to end up taking antibiotics for an upper respiratory infection, the review found.

16 Sep 2011

ITA president hosts International Small Bowel Transplant Symposium

Fifty-two year-old Paul McNeel, a fire chief from Leonardtown, Maryland was 37 in 1996 when a sudden health problem caused the loss of his small intestine. Almost all of it had to be surgically removed to save his life. For 13 years after that, McNeel continued to fight fires and stayed alive only because he fed himself a special liquid formula through a tube that went from a port in his chest directly to his heart and into his bloodstream.

15 Sep 2011

Scientists compare complete genome sequences of cowpox virus to prepare a phylogeny

The family of orthopox viruses is generally considered to comprise vaccinia virus, variola virus, cowpox virus and at least six other species. The various pox viruses are named after their usual hosts but this nomenclature may give rise to a false sense of security: most of them seem to have fairly catholic tastes and cowpox is able to infect not only cows but also a variety of other animals, ranging from mice to elephants as well as man.

15 Sep 2011

Scientists report development of three new formulations against methamphetamine abuse

Scientists are reporting development of three promising formulations that could be used in a vaccine to treat methamphetamine addiction - one of the most serious drug abuse problems in the United States.

15 Sep 2011

Differences in lifestyle, tumor genetics linked to head and neck cancer in African Americans

Why are African Americans more likely than Caucasians to be not only diagnosed with head and neck cancer, but also die from the disease? While the answer isn't a simple one, differences in lifestyle, access to care and tumor genetics may, in part, be to blame, according to a new study from Henry Ford Hospital.

15 Sep 2011

Without action to curb antibiotic resistance, some diseases may once again become untreatable

In this Atlantic Magazine opinion piece, Megan McArdle, senior editor at the Atlantic, echoes a warning by the FDA issued in 2001 which stated, "Unless antibiotic resistance problems are detected as they emerge, and actions are taken to contain them, the world could be faced with previously treatable diseases that have again become untreatable, as in the days before antibiotics were developed."

15 Sep 2011

Uterine stem cells could help treat diabetes

Controlling diabetes may someday involve mining stem cells from the lining of the uterus, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study published in the journal Molecular Therapy.

15 Sep 2011

First effective blood-stage vaccine against malaria

Scientists have identified the first effective blood-stage malaria vaccine, according to a New England Journal of Medicine study from University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers, in collaboration with the University of Bamako in Mali, West Africa, and other partners.

15 Sep 2011

Natural killer white blood cells caught on film

Scientists reveal in more detail than ever before how white blood cells kill diseased tissue using deadly granules, in research published today in PLoS Biology.

14 Sep 2011