T Cell News and Research

Latest T Cell News and Research

Some viral-vector vaccines may cause more harm than good

Leading efforts to create an HIV vaccine have hinged on the use of viruses as carriers for selected elements of the HIV virus. Recently, however, evidence has emerged that some of these so-called viral vector systems may undermine the immune system and should not be used for vaccine development.

16 Nov 2007

Survey shows perceptions of stress among pathology residents

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) conducted a nationwide survey to identify stressors perceived by pathology residents. The survey appears online in the December issue of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology.

16 Nov 2007

Researchers identify compound that eliminates myotonia - a symptom of muscular dystrophy

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) have identified a compound that eliminates myotonia - a symptom of muscular dystrophy - in mice. The research was published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

16 Nov 2007

Pre-malignant mammary lesions in dogs and humans display many of the same characteristics

...a discovery that could lead to better understanding of breast cancer progression and prevention for people and pets, said a Purdue University scientist from the School of Veterinary Medicine.

16 Nov 2007

Kisspeptin and GPR54 may be the future of ovarian cancer treatment

Kisspeptin and its receptor GPR54 predict a favourable clinical outcome in women with ovarian carcinoma, and are specific for the clear cell carcinoma subtype, research published this week in the online open access journal, BMC Medicine, reveals.

16 Nov 2007

Poxvirus' ability to hide from the immune system may aid vaccine design

The cowpox virus, a much milder cousin of the deadly smallpox virus, can keep infected host cells from warning the immune system that they have been compromised, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

16 Nov 2007

Woman's menstrual cycle provides newly discovered type of stem cell

The cells which thicken the womb wall during a woman's menstrual cycle contain a newly discovered type of stem cell, and could be used in the treatment of damaged and/or old tissue, according to research published in the online open access publication, Journal of Translational Medicine.

16 Nov 2007

How inhibitor-of-apoptosis chemicals kill tumors

Chemical compounds specially designed to neutralize proteins that would otherwise allow tumor cells to cheat death have been recognized for some time by scientists as a promising new avenue for cancer therapy.

16 Nov 2007

CD200 stifles anti-tumor immunity

The prognosis for individuals with metastatic melanoma (MM) is not good. Therapeutic strategies to enhance the immune response have some clinical benefit; however, most patients eventually succumb to progressive disease, in part because their immune cells known as dendritic cells (DCs) fail to sustain an effective antitumor T cell immune response.

16 Nov 2007

University of Delaware research to shed light on osteoporosis

Ten million people in the United States are estimated to already have bone diseases, and almost 34 million more are estimated to have low bone mass, putting them at increased risk for osteoporosis, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

16 Nov 2007

Stem cells from cloned monkeys - a breakthrough or an ethical nightmare?

In an important breakthrough scientists in the United States have cloned monkey embryos to create embryonic stem cells.

15 Nov 2007

Viral infection affects important cells' stress response

Viral infection disrupts the normal response of mammalian cells to outside deleterious forces, cleaving and inactivating a protein called G3BP that helps drive the formation of stress granules, which shelter the messenger RNAs that carry the code for protein formation, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

15 Nov 2007

Cultural habits influence oral cancers

Clinicians from the USC School of Dentistry unravel connection between the incidence of oral cancer and race and ethnicity-- as part of first epidemiological study of oral cancer in California.

15 Nov 2007

Why are males in evolutionary overdrive even though they have essentially the same genes as females?

The observation that males evolve more quickly than females has been around since 19th century biologist Charles Darwin noted the majesty of a peacock's tail feather in comparison with the plainness of the peahen's.

15 Nov 2007

Scientists zero in on the cellular machinery that enables neurons to fire

Toy robots with removable body parts - you probably had fun swapping their heads, imagining how it would affect their behavior. Scientists supported by the National Institutes of Health have been performing similar experiments on ion channels - pores in our nerve cells - to sort out the channels' key functional parts.

15 Nov 2007

Compound of milk thistle shows anti-cancer effects

Recently, scientists demonstrated the anti-cancer effects of silibinin, a major biologically active compound of milk thistle. Being widely used as a folk remedy for liver diseases, milk thistle is safe and well-tolerated, and it protects the liver from drug or alcohol-related injury.

15 Nov 2007