New research indicates that the live varicella-zoster vaccine—which is given to protect against shingles—elicits robust immune responses in patients when administered several weeks prior to the start of treatment with the arthritis drug tofacitinib. The Arthritis & Rheumatology findings are encouraging because patients with rheumatoid arthritis have a higher risk of developing shingles than other adults, and...
Category: <span>Immunology</span>
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PCSK9 inhibition could ameliorate cardiovascular disease by immune mechanisms
Barcelona, Spain – 28 Aug 2017: PCSK9 inhibition could ameliorate atherosclerosis and thus cardiovascular disease by immune mechanisms that are unrelated to lowering of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, according to research presented today at ESC Congress.1 T cells and dendritic cells are common in atherosclerotic plaques. Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory process in which activation of...
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Dogs with Duchenne Treated with Gene Therapy
Like humans, some golden retrievers develop Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a hereditary muscle wasting condition that begins early in life. Using gene therapy, scientists were able to restore muscle function in dogs with the disease, according to a study published today (July 25) in Nature Communications. Researchers injected microdystrophin, a shortened version of the dystrophin gene that individuals with...
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Boosting immune cell memory to improve vaccines and cancer immunotherapy
Vaccines and cancer immunotherapies do essentially the same thing: They boost a person’s immune system, better enabling it to fight an offender, be it microbe or malignancy. Both approaches focus on CD8+ T cells, a type of immune cell that can either kill immediately or commit the offender to “memory,” providing long-term protection. In mouse...
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Finding what fuels the ‘runaway train’ of autoimmune disease
A newly-unveiled discovery, which has been four years in the making, has the potential to change the way we look at autoimmune diseases and understand how and why immune cells begin to attack different tissues in the body. “Once your body’s tolerance for its own tissues is lost, the chain reaction is like a runaway...
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Immune system can be modulated by targeted manipulation of cell metabolism
In its attempt to fight a serious bacterial infection, caused by listeria, for example, the immune system can become so over-activated that the resulting inflammatory response and its consequences can quickly lead to death. Scientists from the Medical University of Vienna and Max F. Perutz Laboratories of MedUni Vienna and the University of Vienna, supervised...
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The Ever-Expanding T-Cell World: A Primer
New types of T cells seem to pop up in the scientific literature with increasing frequency. Just this June, for instance, University of Melbourne immunologist Angela Pizzolla and her colleagues described a type of tissue-resident memory T (Trm) cell in the nose that, unlike other Trm cells, can develop from “killer T cells” without antigen exposure or growth-factor stimulation....
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Gold nanostars and immunotherapy vaccinate mice against cancer
By combining an FDA-approved cancer immunotherapy with an emerging tumor-roasting nanotechnology, Duke University researchers improved the efficacy of both therapies in a proof-of-concept study using mice. The potent combination also attacked satellite tumors and distant cancerous cells, completely curing two mice and effectively vaccinating one against the disease. The results appeared online in Scientific Reports on August...
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New Pathology Atlas maps genes in cancer to accelerate progress in personalized medicine
A new Pathology Atlas is launched today with an analysis of all human genes in all major cancers showing the consequence of their corresponding protein levels for overall patient survival. The difference in expression patterns of individual cancers observed in the study strongly reinforces the need for personalized cancer treatment based on precision medicine. In...
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UMass Amherst Researchers Find ‘Switch’ That Turns on Immune Cells’ Tumor-killing Ability
AMHERST, Mass. – Molecular biologists led by Leonid Pobezinsky and his wife and research collaborator Elena Pobezinskaya at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have published results that for the first time show how a microRNA molecule known as Lethal-7 (let-7) serves as a molecular control hub to direct the function of cytotoxic T lymphocytes by...