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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

Immune-based therapy approved in Europe for pediatric cancer patients

The European Commission, which oversees legislation and regulation for the European Union, has approved a therapy for pediatric patients with non-metastatic, resectable osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer.

11 Mar 2009

Better understanding of immune system activation

Linda Andersson at Malmo University in Sweden has studied the ability of dendritic cells to sample the surrounding environment. To understand how different materials are taken up and what happens within the cells can for example facilitate the development of new vaccines.

3 Mar 2009

Universal vaccination associated with decreased Canadian cases of most deadly strain of meningitis

Universal childhood vaccination against meningococcal C appears to reduce Canadian incidence of the most deadly strain of bacterial meningitis, reports new research published in the March issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

2 Mar 2009

Targeted nanospheres find, penetrate, then fuel burning of melanoma

Hollow gold nanospheres equipped with a targeting peptide find melanoma cells, penetrate them deeply, and then cook the tumor when bathed with near-infrared light. When heated with lasers, the actively targeted hollow gold nanospheres did eight times more damage to melanoma tumors in mice than did the same nanospheres that gathered less directly in the tumors.

23 Feb 2009

Tiny flakes of silicon spotlight tumors, deliver drugs

Small is promising when it comes to illuminating tiny tumors or precisely delivering drugs, but many worry about the safety of nano-scale materials.

22 Feb 2009

B-cell clones as early markers for chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Testing of blood specimens may detect abnormal white blood cells in patients years before the chronic form of lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) develops, according to research published in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

22 Feb 2009

Dendritic cells as a new player in arteries and heart valves

In 1973, Ralph M. Steinman launched a new scientific discipline when he published his discovery of the dendritic cell, an odd-shaped player in the immune system.

16 Feb 2009

Bone marrow transplant patients may benefit from new immune research

Bone marrow transplant (BMT) researchers at The Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center in Milwaukee may have found a mechanism that could preserve the leukemia-killing effects of a transplant graft, while limiting the damage donor immune cells might do to the recipient host's vital organs.

11 Feb 2009

Marijuana use may increase risk of testicular cancer

Frequent and/or long-term marijuana use may significantly increase a man's risk of developing the most aggressive type of testicular cancer, according to a study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

9 Feb 2009

Blocking off splenic artery helps liver transplant patients with small-for-size syndrome

Blocking off the splenic artery, either through surgical ligation or radiological coiling, helped six out of seven patients suffering from small-for-size syndrome after a partial liver transplant.

3 Feb 2009

Peptide loaded gold nanospheres find, penetrate, then fuel burning of melanoma

Hollow gold nanospheres equipped with a targeting peptide find melanoma cells, penetrate them deeply, and then cook the tumor when bathed with near-infrared light, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reported in the Feb. 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

2 Feb 2009

Cell transplantation and diabetes: New sites, new devices

Early attempts at islet cell transplantation to treat diabetes date to the nineteenth century, decades before the discovery of insulin in the 1930s.

21 Jan 2009

Gene switch sites found mainly on 'shores,' not just 'islands' of the human genome

Scientists who study how human chemistry can permanently turn off genes have typically focused on small islands of DNA believed to contain most of the chemical alterations involved in those switches.

19 Jan 2009

Artificial antibody delivers nanoparticles to tumors

Antibodies that target epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have proven themselves as potent anticancer drugs. Now, a team of investigators led by Shuming Nie, Ph.D., and Lily Yang, Ph.D., both at the Emory University School of Medicine and members of the Emory-Georgia Tech Nanotechnology Center for Personalized and Predictive Oncology, is aiming to capitalize on this targeting ability, using a modified anti-EGFR antibody to delivery nanoparticles into tumor cells.

18 Jan 2009

Key survival circuit discovered in Salmonella bacteria

Hundreds of trillions of bacteria make their home in the vertebrate gut. Though many of these microbes perform helpful duties for their host, others - the pathogens - are unwelcome visitors, causing disease.

17 Dec 2008

Scans show immune cells intercepting parasites

Researchers may have identified one of the body's earliest responses to a group of parasites that causes illness in developing nations.

10 Dec 2008

Scientists identify 'border patrol agents' in the gut

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have shown in mice how and under what circumstances the gut activates its defensive mechanisms to prevent illness.

8 Dec 2008

New chemotherapy pill shows promise for stubborn lymphomas

A new chemotherapy pill is showing early success in treating people with stubborn lymphomas, according to scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Doctors reported that the drug is halting disease in nearly half of the patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and in patients with more aggressive lymphoma as well.

8 Dec 2008

Novel therapeutic approaches for various forms of thrombocytopenia

Four studies that highlight significant advances in treatment and survival outcomes for patients with various forms of thrombocytopenia, a group of bleeding disorders characterized by a low number of platelets in the blood, were presented December 6 during the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Francisco, CA.

8 Dec 2008