Dendritic Cell News and Research

Latest Dendritic Cell News and Research

Immune cells reveal fancy footwork

Our immune system plays an essential role in protecting us from diseases, but how does it do this exactly?

25 Nov 2008

Scientists find cells reorganize shape to fit situation

Flip open any biology textbook and you're bound to see a complicated diagram of the inner workings of a cell, with its internal scaffolding, the cytoskeleton, and how it maintains a cell's shape.

24 Nov 2008

Genetic Immunity announces first patient dosed in trial with DermaVir patch for HIV

Genetic Immunity, a US/Hungarian clinical-stage company focused on development of nanomedicines for targeted immune amplification, today announced it has treated the first subject in a Phase II clinical study to evaluate DermaVir Patch.

13 Nov 2008

Newborn neurons in the adult brain can settle in the wrong neighborhood

A new study published in this week's PLoS Biology could have significant consequences for neural tissue transplantation to treat brain injuries or neural degeneration.

11 Nov 2008

Newborn neurons in the adult brain can settle in the wrong neighborhood

In a study that could have significant consequences for neural tissue transplantation strategies, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report that inactivating a specific gene in adult neural stem cells makes nerve cells emerging from those precursors form connections in the wrong part of the adult brain.

11 Nov 2008

Starpharma's VivaGelR patent approved in Japan

Starpharma Holdings Limited today announced that one of its key patents relating to the use of dendrimers to protect against sexually transmitted infections has been approved in Japan.

29 Oct 2008

UT Southwestern discovery may lead to new drug-abuse treatments

Increased connections among brain cells caused by excessive drug use may represent the body's defense mechanism to combat addiction and related behaviors, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

27 Aug 2008

Novel imaging reagents and technology that non-invasively locates, quantifies specific cells in the body

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) isn't just for capturing detailed images of the body's anatomy. Thanks to novel imaging reagents and technology developed by Carnegie Mellon University scientist Eric Ahrens, MRI can be used to visualize - with "exquisite" specificity - cell populations of interest in the living body. The ability to non-invasively locate and track cells, such as immune cells, will greatly aid the study and treatment of cancer, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases, as well as provide a tool for advancing clinical translation of the emerging field of cellular regenerative medicine, by tracking stem cells for example.

21 Aug 2008

Newly uncovered cells may be critical in psoriasis

Psoriasis, one of humanity's oldest known diseases, has also been one of its most misunderstood. But in a new study that could change researchers' perspective of the skin disorder and potentially lead to powerful new drug targets, Rockefeller University scientists have found that the source of psoriasis may be a single population of inflammatory cells that act as instigators by priming the body's immune system for self-attack.

20 Aug 2008

Immunotherapy shows promise in high-risk pediatric sarcomas

Based on a pilot study in children with sarcoma, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) believe that immunotherapy could prove beneficial in treating high-risk forms of this cancer.

3 Aug 2008

ISU researchers find possible alternative adjuvant for alum to boost the effectiveness of vaccines

On the rocky road of cancer research, Indiana State University scientists have made important discoveries.

29 Jul 2008

Suckling infants trigger surges of trust hormone in mothers' brains

Researchers from the University of Warwick, in collaboration with other universities and institutes in Edinburgh, France and Italy, have for the first time been able to show exactly how, when a baby suckles at a mother's breast, it starts a chain of events that leads to surges of the "trust" hormone oxytocin being released in their mothers brains.

17 Jul 2008

Researchers discover that learning suffers if brain transcript isn't transported far out to end of neurons

Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have solved a mystery that lies at the heart of human learning, and they say the solution may help explain some forms of mental retardation as well as provide clues to overall brain functioning.

10 Jul 2008

Potential new way to prevent graft-versus-host disease

A new University of Michigan study in mice suggests that a drug recently approved to fight cancer tumors is also able to reduce the effects of graft-versus-host disease, a common and sometimes fatal complication for people who have had bone marrow transplants.

10 Jul 2008

Discovery of toxic key to Alzheimer’s disease memory loss

Using new scientific techniques, scientists have unlocked the cascade of molecular events that lead to Alzheimer's disease.

26 Jun 2008

Cancer vaccine could be in the pipeline

Cancer researchers in the UK say they are one step closer to producing a specific targeted vaccine for killing cancer cells.

25 May 2008

New cancer vaccine protein target found

Cancer Research UK scientists have identified an important new protein target which could be used to produce highly focused vaccine therapies for cancer - according to research published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

25 May 2008

Discovery of a molecular scaffold that guides connections between brain cells

Brain cells known as neurons process information by joining into complex networks, transmitting signals to each other across junctions called synapses. But "neurons don't just connect to other neurons," emphasizes Z. Josh Huang, Ph.D., "in a lot of cases, they connect to very specific partners, at particular spots."

21 May 2008

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