Much cancer immunotherapy research has focused on harnessing the immune system’s T cells to fight tumors, “but we knew that other types of immune cells could be important in fighting cancer too,” says Ashish Kulkarni at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Now he and colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, with others, report that in preclinical models...
Category: <span>Immunology</span>
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CAR-T immunotherapies may have a new player
Emerging CAR-T immunotherapies leverage modified versions of patient’s T-cells to target and kill cancer cells. In a new study, published June 28 online in Cell Stem Cell, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and University of Minnesota report that similarly modified natural killer (NK) cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) also...
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Watching the immune system in action reveals what happens when things goes wrong
Scientists are unveiling how our immune system works – and malfunctions – thanks to an innovative technology that tracks immune cells. Image: ‘Timer’ protein fluorescence across time. Credit: Imperial College LondonThe technology has already been used to look at immune cells involved in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis and could provide valuable insights into autoimmune diseases. As immune cells travel...
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Intense Stress And Autoimmune Diseases: Trauma May Raise Risk Of Immune System Disorders
People who experienced trauma or intense stress could be at higher risk of developing an autoimmune disease, findings of a new study suggest. Trauma may increase a person’s risk of developing autoimmune diseases by 36 percent. People who experienced severe emotional reaction as a result of stress can reduce their risk of developing immune system...
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New study shows how gut immune cells are kept in control
Every day, the human gut works on a fine-tuned balance that ensures the retention of essential nutrients while preventing infection by potential harmful microbes. Contributing to this surveillance system is a specialized group of immune cells that are held back due to unknown reasons, although they have many characteristics of activated cells. Now, a new...
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How a thieving transcription factor dominates the genome
One powerful DNA-binding protein, the transcription factor PU.1, steals away other transcription factors and recruits them for its own purposes, effectively dominating gene regulation in developing immune cells, according to a new Caltech-led study. The research was conducted in the laboratory of Ellen Rothenberg, Albert Billings Ruddock Professor of Biology. A paper describing the work appears in...
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Researchers pinpoint new subtype of prostate cancer
Tumors with alterations in the CDK12 gene were more responsive to immunotherapy, suggesting precision medicine approach MICHIGAN MEDICINE – UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN IMAGE: DEPICTION OF THE MOLECULAR PROCESSES INVOLVED IN A NEW SUBTYPE OF METASTATIC PROSTATE CANCER CHARACTERIZED BY LOSS OF THE GENE CDK12. CREDIT: ALEXANDER TOKAREV, ELLA MARU STUDIO ANN ARBOR, Michigan — Researchers led...
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Drug may quell deadly immune response when trauma spills the contents of our cells’ powerhouses
When trauma spills the contents of our cell powerhouses, it can evoke a potentially deadly immune response much like a severe bacterial infection. Photo of Drs. Keith O’Malley, Patricia Martinez Quinones and Camilla Ferreira Wenceslau. Credit: Phil Jones, Senior Photographer, Augusta University A drug that cleaves escaped proteins called N-formyl peptides appears to reduce resulting...
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Immune system does not recover despite cured hepatitis C infection
Changes to the immune system remain many years after a hepatitis C infection heals, a new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and Hannover Medical School, Germany, shows. The findings, presented in Nature Communications, increases understanding about chronic infection and the way it regulates and impacts composition of the immune system. Infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV)...
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Food allergies connected to children with autism spectrum disorder
A new study from the University of Iowa finds that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more than twice as likely to suffer from a food allergy than children who do not have ASD. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Wei Bao, assistant professor of epidemiology at the UI College of Public Health and the study’s...