Probable Mechanism Underlying Resveratrol Activity Revealed By NIH Study
National Institutes of Health researchers and their colleagues have identified how resveratrol, a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine and other plant products, may confer its health benefits. The authors present evidence that resveratrol does not directly activate sirtuin 1, a protein associated with aging...
Vaccine Myths - Doctors Try To Dispel Them
A Missouri State Medical Association, led by two Saint Louis University pediatricians, aims to raise awareness about the importance of getting children vaccinated and change the way in which doctors respond to parents' fears of vaccines. The campaign is the focus point of Ken Haller, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, and Anthony Scalzo, M.D...
Doctors Aim To Dispel Myths About Vaccines
Two Saint Louis University pediatricians are leading a Missouri State Medical Association statewide effort to change the way doctors respond to parents' fears of vaccines, and to raise awareness about the importance of getting children vaccinated. Ken Haller, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, and Anthony Scalzo, M.D...
Seasonal Changes May Influence The Efficacy Of Vaccination Against Diabetes
The development of a medicine for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, based on autoantigen GAD65, received a setback following crucial clinical phase 3 trials that failed to show significant effects. One possible explanation may be seasonal variations in the immune system, claim those responsible for the study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)...
Childhood Infections Linked To High Risk Of Ischemic Stroke
Common infections in children pose a high risk of ischemic stroke, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012. In a review of 2.5 million children, the researchers identified 126 childhood ischemic stroke cases and then randomly selected 378 age-matched controls from the remaining children without stroke...
Key Peptides Identified That Could Lead To A Universal Vaccine For Influenza
Researchers at the University of Southampton, University of Oxford and Retroscreeen Virology Ltd have discovered a series of peptides, found on the internal structures of influenza viruses that could lead to the development of a universal vaccine for influenza, one that gives people immunity against all strains of the disease, including seasonal, avian, and swine flu...
How Genes Are Affected By Weightlessness - A Fly's Perspective
On Earth all biology is subjected to gravity. Some biological systems require gravity for correct orientation (geotropism: plants grow up, roots grow down). In the absence of gravity even human biology is affected: astronauts lose bone density at 1-2% a month rather than the usual 1-2% a year on Earth. But the effects of gravity on cellular processes are less well understood...
Preclinical Study Identifies New Target For Cancer Therapy
Scientists from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) in Brussels identified a new target for cancer therapy, an enzyme which prevents the immune system from recognizing and destroying certain types of tumors. Called tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase or TDO, the enzyme works by depriving immune cells of tryptophan, an amino acid essential to their activity...
Immunological Mechanisms Of Oncolytic Adenoviral Therapy
Cancer is one of the most common causes of death in humans. The conventional cancer therapies include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeting therapies, which are intended to directly destroy and eliminate tumor cells. These treatments often fail, resulting in tumor metastasis and recurrence. Therefore, there is a critical need for novel cancer therapies...
Researchers Discover Dual Role Of Key Player In Immune System
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researchers have identified a new and unusual role for a key player in the human immune system. A protein initially believed to regulate one routine function within the cell has proven vital for another critical step in the activation of the immune system...
SUMO-Snipping Protein Plays Crucial Role In T And B Cell Development
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 in Molecular Cell...
New Vaccine Approach Discovered For The Treatment Of Cancer
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...
How Bacteria Behind Serious Childhood Disease Evolve To Evade Vaccines
Genetics has provided surprising insights into why vaccines used in both the UK and US to combat serious childhood infections can eventually fail. The study, published in Nature Genetics, which investigates how bacteria change their disguise to evade the vaccines, has implications for how future vaccines can be made more effective...
In Development - System To Deliver Organ Transplant Drug Without Harmful Side Effects
A new system for delivering a drug to organ transplant patients, which could avoid the risk of harmful side effects, is being developed by scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow...
Tracking The Birth Of An Evolutionary Arms Race Between HIV-Like Viruses And Primate Genomes
Using a combination of evolutionary biology and virology, scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have traced the birth of the ability of some HIV-related viruses to defeat a newly discovered cellular-defense system in primates. The research, led by Michael Emerman, Ph.D., a member of the Hutchinson Center's Human Biology and Basic Sciences Division, and Harmit Malik, Ph.D...
HPV Vaccine Not Linked To Autoimmune Disorders, Study
A two-year study of nearly 190,000 girls and women, finds that Gardasil, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine made by Merck & Co, does not trigger autoimmune disorders such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The results are published in the Journal of Internal Medicine...
Skin Inflammation Controlled By Gatekeeper Signal
A new study unravels key signals that regulate protective and sometimes pathological inflammation of the skin. The research, published online in the journal Immunity by Cell Press, identifies a "gatekeeper" that, when lost, can cause inflammatory skin disease in the absence of injury or infection...
Mutation Drives Viral Sensors To Initiate Autoimmune Disease
A new study uses a mouse model of a human autoimmune disease to reveal how abnormal regulation of the intracellular sensors that detect invading viruses can lead to autoimmune pathology...
In Rheumatoid Arthritis, Steroids Prevent Protein Changes Seen In The Joints
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease where the body begins to attack the joints and organs of the body. Proteins within inflamed joints are often modified by citrullination, a process that converts the protein building block arginine into citrulline...
Mathematically Modeling Tumor-Immune Interactions To Aid Cancer Therapy
Cancer is one of the five leading causes of death. And yet, despite decades of research, there is no standardized first-line treatment for most cancers. In addition, disappointing results from predominant second-line treatments like chemotherapy have established the need for alternative methods...
Chemical Contaminants Linked To Low Immune Response To Vaccines
Although there have been some controversies in recent years, the routine childhood vaccination programs remain at the forefront of disease prevention in the community. Now, it appears that chemicals may affect the immune response to the vaccines, and reduce the immunity they provide...
How Immune Cells Move Against Invaders
UCSF scientists have discovered the unexpected way in which a key cell of the immune system prepares for battle. The finding, they said, offers insight into the processes that take place within these cells and could lead to strategies for treating conditions from spinal cord injury to cancer. The research focused on the neutrophil, the most common type of white blood cell...
A New Way To Stimulate The Immune System And Fight Infection
These new data are an essential step towards understanding the operation of these key cells in the immune system, and they could provide a new therapeutic approach to fighting infection. They also suggest that the operation of NK cells must be precisely regulated to guarantee an optimum immune reaction. Details of this work are published in the journal Science...
Boosting Immunity Where It Counts, Not Just Near Vaccine Site
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. The paper was published online in the journal Nature Materials on Jan. 22...
Potential Key To Immune Suppression In Cancer Revealed By Study
In a study investigating immune response in cancer, researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla...