Immune Response News and Research

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It's back to the dark ages...hookworms to treat asthma!

Modern medicine may have stopped short of blood-letting, leeches and purges but parasitic worms could be making a come-back!

17 Sep 2007

Halting rabies in the brain

While rabies, an ancient scourge that still kills 70,000 every year in developing countries worldwide can be combated with a series of vaccines today, it nearly is always fatal when it reaches the brain.

5 Sep 2007

Key differences discovered between avian and human flu

St. Jude scientists have found key features that distinguish influenza viruses found in birds from those that infect humans.

5 Sep 2007

Study identifies osteopontin as a key player in the body's immune response to chronic stress

Osteopontin (OPN), a protein molecule involved in many different cellular processes, plays a significant role in immune deficiency and organ atrophy following chronic physiological stress, resulting in increased susceptibility to illness.

4 Sep 2007

Flies can turn off their immune response

The immune response is actively turned on to target and destroy foreign infectious elements, but in the interests of self-preservation, it is just as important to turn the immune system off to avoid damage to oneself by "friendly fire."

4 Sep 2007

Autoimmune response, triggered by genes, can be a barrier to producing a viable offspring

Plant biologists at the Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that an autoimmune response, triggered by a small number of genes, can be a barrier to producing a viable offspring.

4 Sep 2007

Novel HIV vaccine set for clinical development

A promising new HIV vaccine created at The Wistar Institute has received funding for clinical development aimed at moving the vaccine into human clinical trials as soon as possible.

3 Sep 2007

Researchers discover what makes lymphomas tick

University of Pennsylvania researchers and their colleagues at the Wistar Institute and University of Oxford have discovered the molecular process by which the PAX5 protein, necessary for lymphocyte development, promotes the growth of common lymphomas, thereby unveiling a potential new target in the fight against cancer.

30 Aug 2007

Animal model for dengue research

A mosquito-borne disease often known as "break-bone fever" has found a new enemy in a unique type of mouse.

28 Aug 2007

New understanding of what makes a major global bacterial infection deadly

Researchers believe they have discovered why a bacterial lung infection is so lethal in the early stages, and it's not what medical authorities had thought, according to research published in the journal Immunity.

28 Aug 2007

Oglufanide disodium in new hepatitis C trial

Physicians at Southern Health have started a phase IIa clinical trial designed to test the efficacy of a new strategy for defeating hepatitis C viral infection, one of the toughest infectious diseases in the modern world.

26 Aug 2007

Tumors use enzyme to recruit regulatory T-cells and suppress immune response

One way tumors fly under the radar of the immune system is by using IDO, an enzyme used by fetuses to help avoid rejection, to recruit powerful regulatory T cells that turn down the immune response, researchers say.

17 Aug 2007

Researchers discover how a protein modulates the inflammatory response in acute respiratory distress syndrome

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have discovered how a protein modulates the inflammatory response in sudden, life-threatening lung failure.

17 Aug 2007

First biomarker discovered that predicts prostate cancer outcome

Mayo Clinic researchers have identified the first immune molecule that appears to play a role in prostate cancer development and in predicting cancer recurrence and progression after surgery.

17 Aug 2007

Baxter awarded major contract for flu vaccine in the event of a pandemic

Baxter International Inc. has announced that Baxter's European subsidiary in the United Kingdom has entered into an advanced supply agreement with the Department of Health that contains an option to purchase pandemic influenza vaccine in the event the World Health Organization (WHO) declares a pandemic.

From Baxter International Inc. 17 Aug 2007

Metabolic cell activity directly controls life and death decisions in cells

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that proteins known to promote cell death are also necessary for the maturation and proliferation of immune cells.

13 Aug 2007

Biomira and Merck KGaA sign agreements on Stimuvax

Biomira Inc. has announced the signing of amended and restated collaboration and supply agreements related to Stimuvax with Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany.

12 Aug 2007

High-intensity focused ultrasound may alerts the immune system to cancer

An intense form of ultrasound that shakes a tumor until its cells start to leak can trigger an alarm that enlists immune defenses against the cancerous invasion, according to a study led by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering.

8 Aug 2007

Bacteria - you can live without 'em, but it won't do you any good!

The finding challenges the conventional wisdom that even harmless bacteria – and the immune response they provoke – suck up the energy of the host organism and hasten its death.

8 Aug 2007