Immunology News and Research

Latest Immunology News and Research

Pneumonic plague bacteria transform lungs into a playground for microbes to flourish

Among medical mysteries baffling many infectious disease experts is exactly how the deadly pneumonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, goes undetected in the first few day of lung infection, often until it's too late for medical treatment.

1 Feb 2012

Leprosy pathogen exploits micro-RNAs to weaken immune response

A team of UCLA scientists has found that the pathogen that causes leprosy has a remarkable ability to avoid the human immune system by inhibiting the antimicrobial responses important to our defenses.

30 Jan 2012

Book launch marks anniversary of GABBA Program

On Monday 30th January at 6 p.m. in the Rectory of the University of Porto (Praça Gomes Teixeira), the Secretary of State for Science, Leonor Parreira and the ex-Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Mariano Gago, will attend the commemoration ceremony for the 15th anniversary of the Graduate Program in Basic and Applied Biology (GABBA) at the University of Porto.

30 Jan 2012

SENP1 prevents STAT5 from becoming trapped in nucleus

When SUMO grips STAT5, a protein that activates genes, it blocks the healthy embryonic development of immune B cells and T cells unless its nemesis breaks the hold, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports today in Molecular Cell.

30 Jan 2012

Scientists develop new vaccine to treat cancer at pre-clinical level

Scientists in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, have developed a new vaccine to treat cancer at the pre-clinical level. The research team led by Professor Kingston Mills, Professor of Experimental Immunology at Trinity College Dublin discovered a new approach for treating the disease based on manipulating the immune response to malignant tumours.

27 Jan 2012

Renowned publisher introduces Cell Reports

Cell Press reinforces its commitment to provide a broad range of publishing options for the life sciences community with the inaugural issue of a new open-access journal: Cell Reports.

27 Jan 2012

Boehringer Ingelheim initiates two afatinib phase III trials in head and neck cancer

Boehringer Ingelheim announced today the initiation of two phase III clinical trials, LUX-Head & Neck 1 and LUX-Head & Neck 2. These trials evaluate afatinib in patients with metastatic and recurrent head and neck cancer, and in patients with locally advanced disease, respectively.

27 Jan 2012

Breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s disease research

Researchers are closer to understanding Alzheimer’s disease using a new stem cell technique. They have successfully replicated Alzheimer’s disease neurons with stem cells for the first time.

26 Jan 2012

Chemicals in packaged food and textiles linked to low immunity in kids: Study

According to researchers children exposed to chemicals from food packaging and textile products may have compromised immune systems. They found kids with more perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, in their blood stream were less likely to respond to routine vaccines.

26 Jan 2012

Seattle Children's receives $5M gift from Ben Towne for pediatric cancer study

Seattle Children's Research Institute today announced a $5 million gift from Ben Towne Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. The funding will be used to accelerate the work of Michael Jensen, MD, and his Seattle Children's Research Institute team who are creating new cancer treatments that reprogram a child's immune system to attack and kill cancer cells with the goal of minimizing or even eliminating the need for chemotherapy or radiation.

25 Jan 2012

Cholesterol receptor allows entry of HCV virus into human liver cells

A molecule embedded in the membrane of human liver cells that aids in cholesterol absorption also allows the entry of hepatitis C virus, the first step in hepatitis C infection, according to research at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.

24 Jan 2012

No whooping cough deaths in California in one whole year

The news comes after the state experienced a whooping cough epidemic in 2010 when 9,000 were infected. Most vulnerable to the disease are infants too young to be fully immunized. Ten babies died after exposure from adults or older children. The last year in which no one died was 1991, when the state recorded just 249 cases of pertussis.

24 Jan 2012

Creighton researcher to study role of adult stem cells in repairing damaged coronary arteries

A Creighton University School of Medicine researcher has received a $3.3 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study what role adult stem cells might play in repairing damaged coronary arteries, a complication that often occurs in patients after they undergo angioplasty and stenting.

24 Jan 2012

Novo Nordisk Type 1 Diabetes R&D Center to be established in Seattle

Novo Nordisk announced today that the company will establish a type 1 diabetes research and development center in Seattle, Wash., U.S. The new center will combine Novo Nordisk's history of innovation and leadership in diabetes treatment with the company's growing expertise in immunotherapy.

24 Jan 2012

Duke team creates vaccine adjuvant of nanoparticles that target lymph nodes

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have created synthetic nanoparticles that target lymph nodes and greatly boost vaccine responses, said lead author Ashley St. John, Ph.D., a researcher at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.

23 Jan 2012

Scientists use metabolomics to discover DMS linked with neuropathic pain

Millions of people worldwide suffer from a type of chronic pain called neuropathic pain, which is triggered by nerve damage. Precisely how this pain persists has been a mystery, and current treatments are largely ineffective. But a team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, using a new approach known as metabolomics, has now discovered a major clue: dimethylsphingosine (DMS), a small-molecule byproduct of cellular membranes in the nervous system.

23 Jan 2012

EMA CHMP issues positive opinion to MSD's REMICADE for treatment of pediatric UC

MSD today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) adopted a positive opinion recommending the use of REMICADE (infliximab) in the treatment of severely active ulcerative colitis (UC) in pediatric patients ages 6 to 17 years, who have had an inadequate response to conventional therapy, including corticosteroids and 6-mercaptopurine or azathioprine, or who are intolerant to or have medical contraindications for such therapies.

21 Jan 2012

FDA approves product label change for Biogen Idec's TYSABRI to treat MS

Today Biogen Idec and Elan Corporation, plc announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a product label change for TYSABRI that will help enable individual benefit risk assessment for patients with multiple sclerosis.

21 Jan 2012

Shortages of anti-infective drugs can put patients at risk and alter clinical care

Shortages of key drugs used to fight infections represent a public health emergency and can put patients at risk, according to a review published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online.

20 Jan 2012

Study investigates immune response in cancer

In a study investigating immune response in cancer, researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., and the University of South Florida have found that interaction between the immune system's antigen-specific CD4 T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) - cells that play a major role in cancer-related immune suppression - dramatically change the nature of MDSC-mediated suppression. By contrast, the same effect was not observed when MDSCs interacted with the immune system's CD8 T cells.

20 Jan 2012