The immune system is therefore said to be tolerant of the tumors. Several molecules and cell types have been implicated in the induction of immune system tolerance to tumors, including, in mice, a small population of immune cells known as plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) that produce the enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase ...
These suppressor cells are characterized by a specific surface marker, called CD39, and degrade ATP, an energy carrier released from damaged tissues. By this means, suppressor cells appear to be able to curb inflammation occurring in the central nervous system in the course of the disease. With CD39, Dr. Giovanna Borsellino ...
The ability to discriminate between friend and foe or between “self“ and “foreign” is vital for a functioning immune system. There are numerous protective mechanisms at work to save the body’s own tissue from attacks by misguided immune cells. A pivotal role is played by regulatory T cells (Treg cells), ...
The drug, called interferon alpha (IFNa), is used to clean up microscopic tumor cells that may remain in the body following surgery for the disease. It is the only drug approved for this purpose. Researchers say that these findings underscore the need to develop ways to make melanoma cells more ...
Described in an article appearing online September 16 in the journal Nature Biotechnology, the vaccine delivery platform is a deceptively simple combination of nanotechnology and chemistry that represents a huge advantage over current vaccine methods. This technology may make it possible to vaccinate against diseases like hepatitis and malaria with ...
By administering repeated doses of T cells designed to express an artificial receptor which recognizes human B cells, the researchers were able to eradicate cancer in 44 percent of mice bearing human ALL tumors. Their findings, published in the September 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the ...
Ultimately, the researchers hope the experimental cellular therapy will improve overall survival rates for blood cancer patients as well as offer a potential new paradigm for treating autoimmune diseases. "Toward our quest of making transplants even safer for adults and children with leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and other blood ...
"This study is part of the effort to understand how protection against HIV occurs," says Dennis Burton, a professor at The Scripps Research Institute. "If we really understand this, then we can design tailor-made vaccines in a way that has never been done before." Although vaccines have long been used with ...
Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common rheumatic disease, and affects approximately one per cent of the population. Its causes are unknown, but scientists believe that the chances of developing the disease are determined as much by genetic factors as they are by environment and lifestyle. An international team of researchers from ...
Previous mouse research has shown that both oxidative stress and increased T cell activity contribute to bone loss following estrogen depletion, which occurs after menopause or when ovaries are removed. Oxidative stress is the toxic accumulation of too much reactive oxygen in cells. Research has shown that T ...
It’s already known that a person’s social environment can affect their health, with those who are socially isolated--that is, lonely suffering from higher mortality than people who are not. Now, in the first study of its kind, published in the current issue of the journal Genome Biology, UCLA researchers ...
The research also provides concrete evidence that the effects of chronic stress can be seen both at the genetic and molecular level in chronic caregivers’ bodies. The findings, reported recently by researchers from Ohio State University and the federal National Institute of Aging, were published in the Journal of Immunology. ...
Dr. Leszek Ignatowicz (left) and Dr. Rafal Pacholczyk, MCG immunologists, found that Tregs, similarly to other T cells, respond stronger and more frequently to foreign substances than to the body’s own antigens. (Credit: Medical College of Georgia) The finding may cause a stir in ...
If mice were treated with an antibody that stimulates the molecule CD137 (also known as 4-1BB) before being infected, or within 48 hours of being infected, with the virus LCMV Armstrong the immune response failed to clear the virus. By contrast, if treatment was delayed until more than 72 hours ...
Using a mouse model, the scientists found that a chronic strain of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) targeted a type of stromal cells in the lymphoid organs called fibroblastic reticular cells (FRC). In contrast, an acute strain of the virus had little effect on the FRC cells. FRC provide a ...
The new treatment reduced disease symptoms and extended the lives of laboratory mice that researchers use to study lupus. In the study, Philip S. Low and colleagues cite the need for better treatments for lupus, an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immunological defense system attacks healthy cells, damaging muscles, joints, ...
The same process may be involved in a host of other ailments plaguing the elderly. The findings also suggest that chronic depression may play a key role in starting the cascade that can lead to the buildup of plaques clogging coronary arteries. The researchers’ report, their latest in a nearly ...
It is characterized by a dilated aorta and if allowed to develop unchecked it can rupture, an event with a high rate of mortality. In a new study, Guo-Ping Shi and colleagues at, Harvard Medical School, Boston, have demonstrated a role for immune cells known as mast cells in the ...
The key to creating a vaccination lies in knowing which parts of the pathogen to target with which antibodies. A new study by David Heckerman and colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital, publishing in PLoS Computational Biology, has come up with a way to match pathogens to their antibodies. At the core ...
In recent years, it has been theorized that chronic, low-grade tissue inflammation related to obesity contributes to insulin resistance, the major cause of Type 2 diabetes. In research done in mouse models, the UCSD scientists proved that, by disabling the macrophage inflammatory pathway, insulin resistance and the resultant Type ...
A new article on obesity research in Science proposes that a broader approach is needed to uncover the causes and consequences of obesity. The authors point to work by Dr. Gökhan S. Hotamisligil of the Harvard University School of Public Health and others who have proposed that metabolic problems arise when ...
The researchers want to determine if one insulin capsule taken daily can prevent or delay the onset of type 1 diabetes in relatives of people who are found to be at risk for developing the disease, according to Dorothy Becker, MBBCh, chief of the Division of Pediatric Diabetes and Endocrinology ...
Microspheres coated with certain molecules stick to the protein P-selectin on a glass surface and begin to roll across that surface. Microspheres without the coating did not stick and roll. (Credit: Seungpyo Hong, MIT) Their concept leverages cell rolling, a biological process that slows ...
In their analysis of 8,300 heart surgery patients, the researchers found no association between transfused female plasma and any adverse outcome. In fact, they found a significant decrease in complications in patients receiving only female plasma. Plasma, which makes up about 55 percent of blood’s total volume, is the liquid portion ...
A major component of green tea called EGCG could help treat severe sepsis, a new study in mice suggests. (Credit: iStockphoto/Satu Knape) Dr. Wang had previously discovered a late mediator of sepsis called HMGB1, a substance expressed in the late stages of lethal sepsis. ...
"Our studies suggest a quartet of molecules may have potential diagnostic significance," said Dr. Chandra Mohan, professor of internal medicine and senior author of a study available online at the Journal of Immunology. "Given that early intervention in lupus nephritis is associated with better treatment outcome, it is imperative that ...
Defining the peptides identified by T cells mediating autoimmunity and immune responses against invading microbes, as well as harnessing this information for the design of therapeutics and vaccines, is an area of intensive investigation. New insight into these matters is provided in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical ...
Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Adelaide, Paul Rolan, and postdoctoral fellow Dr Mark Hutchinson are part of a combined US and Australian research team which has made a breakthrough in revealing how opioid drugs such as morphine both relieve pain and also cause addiction. The Adelaide scientists and ...
"This discovery gives researchers an important insight into N-Myc’s role in human AML and might contribute to new strategies for treating this leukemia or disrupting this gene’s ability to cause it," said Gerard Grosveld, Ph.D., chair of the St. Jude Department of Genetics and Tumor Cell Biology. Grosveld is senior ...
Receptive party. Both activating (red) and inhibiting (green) receptors are present when dendritic cells synapse with natural killer cells. This dual setup teaches the natural killer cell to become aggressive while preventing it from attacking its dendritic cell instructor. (Credit: Image courtesy of Rockefeller ...