Immune System News and Research

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New study may lead to more effective, personalized cancer immunotherapies

Neoantigens, tiny markers that arise from cancer mutations, flag cells as cancerous and could be the key to unlocking a new generation of immunotherapies.

12 Oct 2020

New trial tests the effectiveness of BCG vaccine against COVID-19

A largescale global trial designed to test the theory that the widely-used BCG vaccine could help protect against COVID-19 will soon recruit healthcare staff and care home workers in the UK.

12 Oct 2020

COVID-19 survivors may have protective antibodies for 4 months

The study, published in the journal Science Immunology, highlights the body's immune response against COVID-19. Also, it offers hope that people who are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus will develop lasting protection against reinfection.

11 Oct 2020

Analysis of existing comorbidities and COVID-19 mortality

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, and research related to potential risk factors for COVID-19 mortality continues, it is becoming clear that individuals with underlying comorbidities have a greater risk of death from COVID-19. The exact contribution of different comorbidities is unclear, however. Now, a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE dissects this topic and may help to quantify the risk posed by specific conditions and offer help with the prognosis.

11 Oct 2020

CHLA investigator receives $3.4 million research grant to study rotavirus vaccine

Rotavirus (RV) is an extremely contagious viral infection and the most common cause of diarrhea in infants and children worldwide.

9 Oct 2020

New initiative identifies key parameters underlying effective anti-tumor immunity

Neoantigens, tiny markers that arise from cancer mutations, flag cells as cancerous and could be the key to unlocking a new generation of immunotherapies.

9 Oct 2020

Too little sugar is the cause of perforated bones

Bone marrow cancer is currently an incurable disease that affects about 400 people in Norway every year. Professor Therese Standal at NTNU has now found an important reason for bone destruction in people with this disease.

9 Oct 2020

Developing a precision 'Trojan Horse' nanotherapy to treat breast cancer

With a nearly $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Michigan State University researchers are using nanoscopic particles to turn the body's own cells into weapons that cancer won't see coming.

9 Oct 2020

Exuberant activation of immune cells in severe COVID-19 resembles lupus

In severe cases of COVID-19, Emory researchers have been observing an exuberant activation of immune cells, resembling acute flares of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease.

9 Oct 2020

Research shows choroid plexus can act as a conduit for prenatal inflammation

Floating in fluid deep in the brain are small, little understood fronds of tissue. Two new studies reveal that these miniature organs are a hotbed of immune system activity.

9 Oct 2020

As Trump touts his ‘great’ COVID drugs, the pharma cash flows to Biden, not him

Pharmaceutical giants Regeneron and Gilead Sciences got the kind of publicity money can't buy this week after President Donald Trump took their experimental drugs for his coronavirus infection, left the hospital and pronounced himself fully recovered.

9 Oct 2020

Transplantation of pig hearts may solve chronic shortage of donor organs

The goal of harvesting hearts from pigs to solve the chronic shortage of these donor organs appears to be in reach, according to a new scientific review by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

9 Oct 2020

Mass production of SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 protein using a chemical-inducible system in tobacco BY-2 cells

Researchers from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) and Ishikawa Prefectural University, Japan, recently attempted to synthesize the ORF8 protein with the help of a chemical-inducible protein production system using tobacco BY-2 cells. This study has been published demonstrated in the preprint server, bioRxiv.

9 Oct 2020

Production of bone substitutes is less complicated than was previously thought

The way in which bone formation occurs needs to be redefined. This was revealed by Radboud university medical center researchers and their colleagues in a publication in Nature Communications.

8 Oct 2020

NIH clinical trial to test a combination treatment regimen for COVID-19

A clinical trial to test the safety, tolerability and efficacy of a combination treatment regimen for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) consisting of the antiviral remdesivir plus a highly concentrated solution of antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has begun.

8 Oct 2020

Overreaction of the immune system could be linked to severe COVID-19 cases

Samples from the lungs of patients show a runaway immune system reaction could be one mechanism behind severe COVID-19 cases.

8 Oct 2020

Researchers identify a promising method to stop COVID-19 infection

While the world waits eagerly for a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infections from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers also are focusing on better understanding how SARS-CoV-2 attacks the body in the search for other means of stopping its devastating impact.

8 Oct 2020

Novel feed ingredient can reduce effects of coccidiosis in broiler chickens

Broiler chicken producers the world over are all too familiar with coccidiosis, a parasite-borne intestinal disease that stalls growth and winnows flocks.

8 Oct 2020

Comet supercomputer performs complex calculations on receptor sequence data from human T cells

While researchers around the world race to develop an effective and safe COVID-19 vaccine, a team from the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego contributed to a study led by Vanderbilt Vaccine Center of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) on T cell receptors, which play a vital role in alerting the adaptive immune system to mount an attack on invading foreign pathogens including the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

8 Oct 2020

Experimental Chinese SARS-CoV-2 vaccine appears safe in early trials

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020 reports the findings of a phase I trial of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, demonstrating that it can elicit a potent immune response without significant adverse reactions.

7 Oct 2020