Immunology News and Research

Latest Immunology News and Research

Children with allergic disease have higher risk of heart disease

Children with allergic disease, particularly asthma and hay fever, have about twice the rate of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, setting them on a course for heart disease at a surprisingly early age, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

8 Dec 2015

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells may not contribute to late-stage lupus

For years, biomedical researchers have suspected that a specific set of immune cells are responsible for causing disease in lupus patients, but until now they haven't known for sure one way or the other.

8 Dec 2015

Macrophages play key role in maintaining healthy arteries after inflammation

Researchers from the University of Toronto have found that a specific cell type plays a key role in maintaining healthy arteries after inflammation. It's a discovery that could provide treatment options for cardiovascular disease -- one of the leading causes of death in Canada.

8 Dec 2015

NEK7 enzyme acts as on-off switch in innate immune system

UT Southwestern Medical Center and California researchers today provide the first report that an enzyme previously known solely for its role in cell division also acts as an on-off switch in the innate immune system -- the body's first defense against infection.

8 Dec 2015

XARELTO reduces rates of major bleeding, recurrent blood clots in people with deep vein thrombosis

Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its development partner, Bayer HealthCare, today announced the results from their real-world study XALIA showing that, in people with deep vein thrombosis (DVT), the rates of major bleeding and recurrent blood clots for XARELTO (rivaroxaban) in routine clinical practice were generally consistent with those observed in Phase 3 research.

7 Dec 2015

Study reveals how MGCs dispose waste that obstructs normal physiological processes

If rubbish is too big and unwieldy for normal household waste, its removal becomes the job of specialized experts. Researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now discovered, in cooperation with colleagues from the UK, how large, fused cells help our body to deal with bulky items that may otherwise obstruct normal physiological processes.

7 Dec 2015

New model of arterial thrombus formation is similar to popular video game

A group of biophysicists, including representatives from MIPT, has developed a mathematical model of arterial thrombus formation, which is the main cause of heart attacks and strokes.

1 Dec 2015

Researchers discover drug target and genetic pathway for graft-versus-host disease

A Seattle Children's Research Institute lab has discovered a genetic pathway that can be targeted with existing drugs to prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a common and deadly complication of bone marrow transplants.

30 Nov 2015

UF Health researcher finds simple way to treat immune-related disorder in mice

A University of Florida Health researcher has found a simple, rapid way to treat an immune-related disorder in mice, an approach that could eventually help multiple sclerosis patients after further research.

25 Nov 2015

Researchers offer novel solution to promote successful radiotherapy for cancer patients

Researchers at The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have discovered a key mechanism by which radiation treatment (radiotherapy) fails to completely destroy tumors. And, in the journal Nature Immunology, they offer a novel solution to promote successful radiotherapy for the millions of cancer patients who are treated with it.

25 Nov 2015

Certain platelet-derived growth factors can encourage regeneration of liver tissue following surgery

A team of researchers at the MedUni Vienna has discovered that certain platelet-derived growth factors are of major significance for the liver's regeneration processes. It has been shown that platelets can encourage the regrowth of liver tissue in patients who have had parts of their liver removed surgically.

23 Nov 2015

New data shows ALS-008176 drug safe and effective against RSV infection

Alios BioPharma, Inc., part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies announced that the New England Journal of Medicine will publish findings from a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) challenge study for ALS-008176, a cytidine nucleoside analog with activity against RSV.

20 Nov 2015

Loyola professor receives prestigious 2015 Marion Spencer Fay Award

Loyola University Chicago Professor Katherine L. Knight, PhD, one of the nation's leading immune system researchers, has received the prestigious 2015 Marion Spencer Fay Award.

20 Nov 2015

Research findings may lead to potential therapeutic target for treating inflammatory bowel diseases

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have shown that a pathogen-sensing molecule plays a vital role in keeping gastrointestinal (GI) systems healthy.

20 Nov 2015

New approach to regulate people's cholesterol levels

A discovery about how the body deals with the cholesterol contained within its dying cells has suggested an exciting new approach to control people's cholesterol levels - and thus their risk of developing heart disease.

19 Nov 2015

UF Health investigators make new discovery about Huntington's disease

University of Florida Health researchers have made a new discovery about Huntington's disease, showing that the gene that causes the fatal disorder makes an unexpected "cocktail" of mutant proteins that accumulate in the brain.

19 Nov 2015

TSRI researchers have new weapons to combat HIV

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have new weapons in the fight against HIV. Their new study, published November 17, 2015 as the cover article of the journal Immunity, describes four prototype antibodies that target a specific weak spot on the virus. Guided by these antibodies, the researchers then mimicked the molecular structure of a protein on HIV when designing their own potential HIV vaccine candidate.

18 Nov 2015

Diabetes prevention begins in the womb

60 million people worldwide are living with diabetes mellitus, and one in ten people over the age of 25 will develop the condition (type 2) at some stage in their lives. Globally, around 3.4 million people die from diabetes and its consequences every year. "Every six seconds, somebody somewhere in the world dies from diabetes", says Alexandra Kautzky-Willer from the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the MedUni Vienna's University Department of Internal Medicine III.

13 Nov 2015

Analyzing potential TB vaccine

When results from a landmark tuberculosis vaccine trial in Cape Town, South Africa were published in The Lancet in February 2013, the headlines were grim, despite hopes that the trial would point toward a successful way to thwart one of the globe's biggest public health threats.

13 Nov 2015

Different types of asthma respond differently to new experimental treatment

University of Queensland research into the effects of dust mite and cockroach allergens has found that different types of asthma respond differently to a new experimental treatment.

12 Nov 2015