Immune System News and Research

RSS

Dendreon receives FDA approval for Los Angeles cancer immunotherapy manufacturing facility

Dendreon Corporation today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its Los Angeles cancer immunotherapy manufacturing facility, allowing the company to continue to increase the availability of PROVENGE across the U.S. to help meet the needs of patients with asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer.

30 Jun 2011

Vaccines may be given in food in the near future

Soon children could be vaccinated with bacteria mixed in milk and people in the developing world given unprecedented access to immunisations under a scheme proposed by an Australian Nobel laureate, Barry Marshall.

29 Jun 2011

Prototype small molecule drugs could suppress hepatitis C

Targeted multi-drug treatments for hepatitis C patients that could stop the virus in its tracks have come a step closer, thanks to researchers at the University of Leeds, UK.

29 Jun 2011

Experienced North Korean aid worker says hunger crisis imminent

North Korea has significantly cut public food aid and could be heading toward a hunger crisis, said Katharina Zellweger, head of a Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation's office in Pyongyang and "one of the most experience aid workers" in the country, according to Agence France-Presse.

29 Jun 2011

Nuvilex to continue development of acquired live-cell encapsulation technology

Nuvilex, Inc. announced its plans to continue development of the live-cell encapsulation technology obtained with its recent acquisition of SG Austria, to carry out the pancreatic cancer clinical trial, to maintain and expand customers utilizing the encapsulation technology, and to establish itself as an active participant in the stem cell arena. The stem cell market was estimated to be $21.5 billion globally in 2010 and is forecast to reach $63.8 billion by 2015.

29 Jun 2011

GABA corrects both known causes of Type 1 diabetes

A chemical produced by the same cells that make insulin in the pancreas prevented and even reversed Type 1 diabetes in mice, researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have found.

29 Jun 2011

New concepts for how evolutionary change occurs

At a recent Kavli Futures Symposium, 19 experts from a diverse range of fields discussed the promise of using the lab to understand and exploit the evolution of organisms -- progress that may one day lead to new vaccines or other biotechnology products.

29 Jun 2011

Insufficient sleep can reduce benefit of hormones released during sleep

Nearly half of all Americans reported having difficulty sleeping. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that about 35% of people surveyed in 12 states said they slept less than 7 hours a night on average.

29 Jun 2011

Inefficiency of activation-induced deoxycytidine deaminase is good for the immune system

Why is antibody diversity important? Think about it like this, said Myron Goodman, who is an author on the paper: "Why don't you die when I sneeze? It's because you have a powerful immune system. And the way to get a decent immune system is for your body to have a way to respond to insults it has never seen before."

28 Jun 2011

RCSI researchers identify novel drug target for osteomyeltitis

New research from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has identified a novel drug target for the treatment of infection in bone.

28 Jun 2011

Sprouts blamed for spreading Salmonella infection

Sprouts have been suspected to be the cause of 20 Salmonella infections in five states across the U.S., while an earlier Salmonella outbreak linked to cantaloupes is probably over, according to federal officials.

28 Jun 2011

FDA warns consumers not to eat alfalfa, spicy sprouts from plastic bags

The FDA is warning consumers not to eat alfalfa sprouts or spicy sprouts from plastic bags labeled "Evergreen Produce" or "Evergreen Produce Inc."

28 Jun 2011

Scientists discover how bacteria invade heart tissue and cause endocarditis

Scientists have discovered the tool that bacteria normally found in our mouths use to invade heart tissue, causing a dangerous and sometimes lethal infection of the heart known as endocarditis.

28 Jun 2011

Tissue-engineered blood vessels from donor skin cells successfully implanted in patients

For the first time, blood vessels created in the lab from donor skin cells were successfully implanted in patients. Functioning blood vessels that aren't rejected by the immune system could be used to make durable shunts for kidney dialysis, and potentially to improve treatment for children with heart defects and adults needing coronary or other bypass graft surgery.

28 Jun 2011

Accelerated hepatitis B vaccination schedule effective for high-risk pregnant women

UT Southwestern Medical Center maternal-fetal specialists have confirmed a potential new protocol to protect pregnant women who are at risk for hepatitis B, a health problem that affects 2 billion people worldwide.

28 Jun 2011

Australian Nobel Prize winner closer to delivering vaccines in food after positive first study in humans

The Australian scientist who won a Nobel Prize for identifying a cancer-causing stomach bacterium, today said a clinical trial had shown that some strains of the bacteria (Helicobacter pylori or H. pylori) were safe and well tolerated in humans.

27 Jun 2011

Vitamin D supplements safe for healthy pregnant women

Use of vitamin D supplements during pregnancy has long been a matter of concern but now researchers writing in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research report that even a high supplementation amount in healthy pregnant women was safe and effective in raising circulating vitamin D to a level thought by some to be optimal. The study also found no adverse effects of vitamin D supplementation, even at the highest amount, in women or their newborns.

27 Jun 2011

Researchers identify how sooty mangabeys survive SIV infection

Sooty mangabeys, a type of African monkey, have intrigued scientists for years because they can survive infection by SIV, a relative of HIV, and not succumb to AIDS.

27 Jun 2011

Yissum, BioLineRx sign license deal to develop and commercialize BL-7040 for IBD

BioLineRx, a biopharmaceutical drug development company, and Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, announced today that they have signed a worldwide, exclusive license agreement for BioLineRx to develop and commercialize BL-7040, an orally available Phase II ready molecule for treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and other inflammatory diseases.

27 Jun 2011