Dendritic Cell News and Research

Latest Dendritic Cell News and Research

Researchers discover 'reservoir' that allows HIV to remain infectious despite treatment

Researchers at Brigham Young University and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered a human cell "reservoir," called follicular dendritic cells, that allows HIV to stay in an infectious state and not respond to antiretroviral drugs, the Deseret Morning News reports.

19 May 2008

DNA vaccines boosted by dendritic cells

The concept sounds ideal: vaccines made of DNA that could be taken in by other cells and give instructions for how to fight off different diseases. The reality, however, has fallen short. Although DNA vaccines have been around for about 15 years and shown lots of promise for HIV, SARS and influenza vaccines during preclinical testing in mice, researchers have yet to make them potent enough to be helpful in humans.

18 May 2008

First evidence of native dendritic cells in brain

In a finding that has the potential to change the way researchers think about the brain, scientists at Rockefeller University have found dendritic cells where they've never been seen before: among this organ's neurons and connective cells.

15 May 2008

Researchers step closer to finding ways to treat type 1 diabetes

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis working with diabetic mice have examined in unprecedented detail the immune cells long thought to be responsible for type 1 diabetes.

9 May 2008

Role of genetic components of dendritic cells could lead to more effective drugs

For the first time, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have identified genetic components of dendritic cells that are key to asthma and allergy-related immune response malfunction. Targeting these elements could result in more effective drugs to treat allergic disorders and asthma, according to a study reported in the May edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

7 May 2008

Regulatory T cells orchestrate reaction to a virus invasion

Just as fire engines arrive quickly at the scene to save people and property, the cells that fight viruses have to reach the site of an infection promptly to mount a protective response.

24 Apr 2008

Discovery of new genetic links to psoriasis

In the first comprehensive study of the genetic basis of psoriasis, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered seven new sites of common DNA variation that increase the risk of the troublesome skin condition.

4 Apr 2008

Discovery of new type of retinal cell

Harvard University researchers have discovered a new type of retinal cell that plays an exclusive and unusual role in mice: detecting upward motion.

31 Mar 2008

Survival mechanism of T lymphocytes uncovered

When an individual is challenged by a virus, a bacterium or any other infectious agent, several classes of white blood cells are being activated in order to fight the invasion.

19 Mar 2008

Short-term stress impairs brain-cell communication

Short-term stress lasting as little as a few hours can impair brain-cell communication in areas associated with learning and memory, University of California, Irvine researchers have found.

12 Mar 2008

Protein within neurons in the amygdala controls development of alcohol withdrawal symptoms and drinking behaviors

Doctors may one day be able to control alcohol addiction by manipulating the molecular events in the brain that underlie anxiety associated with alcohol withdrawal, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center report in the March 5 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

6 Mar 2008

New way to develop tumor vaccines

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have uncovered a new way to develop more effective tumor vaccines by turning off the suppression function of regulatory T cells.

3 Mar 2008

Discovery of potential drug targets for sepsis

"We have identified a key connection of signaling pathways in the cascade of events leading to sepsis. This defines a crucial point where the immune system spirals out of control to cause severe sepsis and where there is an opportunity for therapeutic intervention," says Scripps Research Professor Wolfram Ruf, who led the research with his postdoctoral fellow Frank Niessen.

28 Feb 2008

Scientists devise approach that stops HIV at earliest stage of infection

Their study, which appears this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), may re-energize attempts to create a preventive/therapeutic vaccine against HIV, say the authors.

28 Feb 2008

Nasal vaccine for smallpox protects animals against 77 times the potentially lethal dose of smallpox

Scientists at NanoBio Corporation and the University of Michigan have demonstrated their nasally delivered vaccinia vaccine can protect animals against 77 times the potentially lethal dose of smallpox, and without the safety risks of current vaccines for smallpox.

27 Feb 2008

Gene therapy - immune system discovery may lead to effective treatment for glioblastoma multiforme

A new gene therapy approach that attracts and "trains" immune system cells to destroy deadly brain cancer cells also provides long-term immunity, produces no significant adverse effects and -- in the process of destroying the tumor -- promotes the return of normal brain function and behavioral skills, according to a study conducted by researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Board of Governors Gene Therapeutics Research Institute.

20 Feb 2008

RNA-associated introns guide nerve-cell channel production

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that introns, or junk DNA to some, associated with RNA are an important molecular guide to making nerve-cell electrical channels.

7 Feb 2008

How anti-TNF compounds work

Powerful drugs used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis have a profound, previously unrecognized effect on the immune system, breaking up molecular "training camps" for rogue cells that play an increasingly recognized role in autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

21 Jan 2008

Researchers find cell protein that blocks HIV virus generation

UCLA researchers have found that a key protein in the body's dendritic cells can stop the virus that causes AIDS from "budding" part of the virus' life cycle that is crucial to its ability to replicate and infect other cells.

16 Jan 2008