Study identifies mechanisms responsible for improved immune system activity, offering new approaches for more effective cancer treatments and vaccines. UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT IMAGE: THIS IS AN ILLUSTRATION SHOWING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN COMPONENTS OF THE AH10-7 COMPOUND (YELLOW), AN IMMUNE SYSTEM ANTIGEN-PRESENTING CELL (GRAY), AND AN INVARIANT NATURAL KILLER T CELL (GREEN AND BLUE) CREDIT: JOSE GASCON/UCONN Invariant...
Category: <span>Immunology</span>
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Preventing tumors from shedding their identifying proteins allows immune system to attack
A team of researchers with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the U.S. has found that introducing an antibody into a cancerous mouse model prevented the escape of ligands from a tumor surface allowing natural killer cells to attack. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their technique...
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Tumor suppressor protein targets liver cancer
Salk Institute scientists, together with researchers from Switzerland’s University of Basel and University Hospital Basel, discovered a protein called LHPP that acts as a molecular switch to turn off the uncontrolled growth of cells in liver cancer. The tumor suppressor, which could be useful as a biomarker to help diagnose and monitor treatment for liver...
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Colon signaling pathway key to inflammatory bowel disease
Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) -led research reveals role of signaling pathway in development of dysregulated immune cells capable of inducing inflammation in the colon Tokyo -The intestine encounters more foreign substances, and potential toxins, than other parts of the body, so it is not surprising that a healthy gut is maintained by the...
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Newly discovered metabolic mechanism could be an off-switch for inflammation
Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have uncovered a new metabolic process involved in the immune system’s inflammatory processes. The discovery suggests manipulating this mechanism could essentially “switch off” inflammation, which the researchers hope could lead to the development of entirely new anti-inflammatory drugs to treat a host of auto-immune disorders. When the body is working...
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Study points to potential personalized approach to treating lupus
In individuals with lupus, immune cells attack the body’s own tissue and organs as if they are enemy invaders. A new Yale-led study describes how a protein found in common bacteria triggers that auto-immune response. The finding opens the door to future therapies targeting the bacteria rather than the immune system, the researchers said. To...
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A combination of cancer immunotherapies could save more lives
The pre-clinical study, published in Clinical Cancer Research, by Dr Sarah Buchan and colleagues, combined antibodies targeting PD-1/PD-L1, a type of immunotherapy known as checkpoint blockade that overcomes the resistance of cancer cells to the immune system, with another antibody against CD27, which kick starts the immune system to find and kill the cancer cells. Results...
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Two immunotherapies used together for the first time to tackle tumors
Drs. Esteban Celis and Sharad Ghamande in the Georgia Cancer Center. Two immunotherapies – one that enables the T-cells a patient already has to better attack a tumor and another that can produce an independent and vigorous immune response – are being given together for the first time to help more patients wage a...
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New paths to cure cancer emerge from immunotherapy trials
Sue Scott’s life was saved by an experimental cancer treatement trial, and she has celebrated five years cancer-free In the winter of 2013, Sue Scott, then 36, had already planned her own funeral. Her cervical cancer was spreading fast. Multiple rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery had all failed. Tumors were invading her liver and colon,...
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Grass peptide immunotherapy cuts seasonal allergy symptoms
Ralph Mösges, M.D., from the Institute of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Epidemiology in Cologne, Germany, and colleagues assessed the clinical efficacy and safety of a cumulative dose of 170 μg LPP administered subcutaneously over three weeks among 554 adults with grass pollen rhinoconjunctivitis. The participants were randomized in a 1:2 ratio to receive subcutaneous injections...