While treatments for HIV mean that the disease is no longer largely fatal, the world still lacks a true therapy that can eradicate the virus across a globally—and genetically different—population. CD4+ T cells, or helper T cells, in HIV controllers can interact with various HLA class II molecules presenting the same “piece” of HIV. These...
Category: <span>Immunology</span>
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Restricting unwanted immune reactions
Researchers at the University of Münster (Germany) have decoded a mechanism found at the beginning of many inflammatory processes: a new approach to the development of anti-inflammatory treatment options IMAGE: BINDING MODEL: THE S100A8/S100A9 PROTEIN COMPLEX (GREY/BEIGE) BINDS TO THE TLR4 RECEPTOR (RAINBOW-COLOURED) AND MD2 (RED) AND TRIGGERS IMMUNE REACTIONS IN CELLS. BLOCKING THIS INTERACTION IS A...
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Antibody blocks inflammation, protects mice from hardened arteries and liver disease
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine discovered that they can block inflammation in mice with a naturally occurring antibody that binds oxidized phospholipids (OxPL), molecules on cell surfaces that get modified by inflammation. Even while on a high-fat diet, the antibody protected the mice from arterial plaque formation, hardening of the...
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Rare bacteria boosts immunotherapy in prostate cancer
A unique bacterial strain isolated from a patient with pelvic pain may represent a promising path to treating prostate cancer with immunotherapy, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature Communications. A tumor that was not treated with CP1 (above) and a tumor that was treated with CP1 (below). T-cells are in red, indicating immune...
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Restricting unwanted immune reactions
The immune system often initiates its response to pathogens by activating immune cells, so-called phagocytes, which migrate to sites of inflammation. There, the phagocytes release certain proteins, including the S100A8/S100A9 heterodimeric protein complex, which triggers or amplifies the inflammatory reaction at the site of the disease. However, if too many of these complexes are released,...
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Nucleoside logic: Supply-side programming of the immune biocomputer
The immune system is host to a bewildering array of cell types. Traditionally, immunologists have classified cells in different states of activation according to the various interleukins, interferons and other cytokines they express or secrete. Unfortunately, this ever-sprawling matrix of cell markers has become a matrix of exceptions that is rapidly collapsing under its own...
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A new method measures the immune cell response within minutes
T cells fight pathogens and tumors: Researchers from the Universities of Tübingen and Lübeck present a simple and fast method to rapidly assess their function. The new method identifies structural changes in the integrins, certain molecules expressed on the cell surface of the T cells, and thus detects whether the T lymphocytes are working effectively. Credit: Stoyan...
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No link between HPV vaccination and risk of autoimmune disorders—study
A new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) found no increased risk of autoimmune disorders in girls who received quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV4) vaccination, adding to the body of evidence for the safety of the vaccine. Electron micrograph of a negatively stained human papilloma virus (HPV) which occurs in human warts. Human papillomavirus is the most...
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The bugs we carry and how our immune system fights them
Human beings are large, complex, multicellular, multi-organ systems. We reproduce slowly and rely on a breadth of mechanisms that allow us to control the myriad of rapidly replicating, simple life forms that have evolved to live in or on us. The immune system has to establish which cells belong to us and which are foreign,...
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The Unfolded Protein Response in Immunogenic Cell Death and Cancer Immunotherapy
Trends The ER is a key organelle in cell physiology, and it evolved as an elaborated signaling pathway to cope with life-threatening perturbations of its homeostatic state. This process, called the UPR, is exploited by cancer cells to survive in their microenvironment and to promote tumor progression. Figure [1] Many approaches have been investigated to...