Immune System News and Research

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MIT researchers identify a way to indirectly activate T cells to fight tumors

Under the right circumstances, the body's T cells can detect and destroy cancer cells. However, in most cancer patients, T cells become disarmed once they enter the environment surrounding a tumor.

22 Nov 2021

Cancer cells disarm immune cells by hijacking mitochondria, says research

Researchers utilized the power of nanotechnology to identify a novel means that cancer cells use to disarm their would-be cellular attackers.

19 Nov 2021

New group of molecules that have an antibacterial effect identified

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Umeå University, and the University of Bonn have identified a new group of molecules that have an antibacterial effect against many antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

18 Nov 2021

Research demonstrates how diet affects immunity through the gut microbiome

The cliché "you are what you eat" has been used for hundreds of years to illustrate the link between diet and health. Now, an international team of researchers has found the molecular proof of this concept, demonstrating how diet ultimately affects immunity through the gut microbiome.

From Harvard Medical School 17 Nov 2021

Covid-19 vaccine-elicited immune cells persist six months after vaccination, study shows

A recent study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers provides evidence that CD4+ T lymphocytes — immune system cells also known as helper T cells — produced by people who received either of the two available messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines for COVID-19 persist six months after vaccination at only slightly reduced levels from two weeks after vaccination and are at significantly higher levels than for those who are unvaccinated.

17 Nov 2021

Study identifies new gene that promotes progression to type 1 diabetes

When the pro-inflammatory pair, a receptor called CCR2 and its ligand CCL-2, get together, it increases the risk of developing type 1 diabetes, scientists report.

17 Nov 2021

Novel therapy induces phagocytosis to treat bacterial pneumonia

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health recently found a therapy that targets host cells instead of bacterial cells in treating bacterial pneumonia.

17 Nov 2021

Researchers test a neoantigen-specific transgenic immune cell therapy for malignant gliomas

Doctors and scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and from Heidelberg University's Medical Faculty Mannheim have successfully tested a neoantigen-specific transgenic immune cell therapy for malignant brain tumors for the first time using an experimental model in mice.

16 Nov 2021

Cellular enlargement drives a decline in function of stem cells, study suggests

MIT biologists have answered an important biological question: Why do cells control their size? Cells of the same type are strikingly uniform in size, while cell size differs between different cell types. This raises the question of whether cell size is important for cellular physiology.

15 Nov 2021

Research details how HIV-infected cells evade detection by the immune system

Scientists from the Wistar Institute revealed how major features on the surface of HIV-infected cells help the disease avoid detection by the immune system.

15 Nov 2021

New model for early prediction of cancer patients' response to immunotherapy

Researchers have developed a model that could predict early on in treatment whether cancer patients will respond to immunotherapy, according to a report published today in eLife.

10 Nov 2021

Technion researchers explore the brain's potential to cause diseases on its own

Your phone pings. It's a notification from your friend, who you just went out for a drink with last night. According to her text, she has just tested positive for COVID-19.

9 Nov 2021

Experts identify novel mechanisms involved in macrophage polarization

Macrophages are important cells of the immune system with numerous beneficial functions. However, macrophages also aggravate common diseases.

8 Nov 2021

Transformative technology aims to provide insights into the function of immune cells

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment and it is not an overstatement.

8 Nov 2021

Study identifies a compound capable of easing symptoms of coronavirus infections

A group of researchers recently discovered a compound that reveals potential in alleviating the symptoms of coronavirus infections.

8 Nov 2021

Torquetenovirus in people infected by SARS-CoV-2 can be used as a marker of disease severity

Torquetenovirus (TTV) is one of the viruses most frequently found in the human organism. It is also common in monkeys and domestic animals.

8 Nov 2021

Immune system–related differences in dialysis, kidney transplant patients are amplified by SARS-CoV-2

People with kidney failure who are on dialysis or who have received a kidney transplant face a higher risk of dying from COVID-19.

8 Nov 2021

'Rewiring' the mitochondria in macrophages can resolve inflammatory reactions

New data from a research team at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg shows how inflammatory reactions can be resolved by changes to the metabolism of macrophages.

8 Nov 2021

Multiple sclerosis drug improves memory in mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Losing memory is a hallmark of Alzheimer's, a symptom of the disease that depletes a patient's quality of life. Improving memory and slowing cognitive changes caused by the disease is an ongoing challenge for researchers seeking to develop novel therapies.

8 Nov 2021

Study reveals what causes T cells to be non-responsive to immunotherapy

Non-small cell lung cancer is the most common type of lung cancer in humans. Some patients with NSCLC receive a therapy called immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) that helps kill cancer cells by reinvigorating a subset of immune cells called T cells, which are "exhausted" and have stopped working.

1 Nov 2021