A new study identifies genes that are necessary in cancer cells for immunotherapy to work, addressing the problem of why some tumors don’t respond to immunotherapy or respond initially but then stop as tumor cells develop resistance to immunotherapy. The study, from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), was led by Nicholas Restifo, M.D., a senior...
Category: <span>Immunology</span>
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Study reveals how to reprogram cells in our immune system
When the immune system is imbalanced, either due to overly-active cells or cells that suppress its function, it causes a wide range of diseases, from psoriasis to cancer. By manipulating the function of certain immune cells, called T cells, researchers could help restore the system’s balance and create new treatments to target these diseases. Scientists...
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Statistical analysis for optimal immunization: New insights into T cell development
When T cells encounter an antigen, they proliferate and produce various types of daughter cells. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now refuted the prevailing hypothesis that this immune response is largely predetermined by the individual structure of the T cell receptor. Instead, the influence of the T cell receptor can...
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Five vascular diseases linked to one common genetic variant
Genome-wide association studies have implicated a common genetic variant in chromosome 6p24 in coronary artery disease, as well as four other vascular diseases: migraine headache, cervical artery dissection, fibromuscular dysplasia, and hypertension. However, it has not been clear how this polymorphism affects the risk for so many diseases. In the journal Cell on July 27, researchers show...
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Gene transfer corrects severe muscle defects in mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a rapidly progressive disease that causes whole-body muscle weakness and atrophy due to deficiency in a protein called dystrophin. Researchers at the University of Missouri, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, University of Washington, and Solid Biosciences, LLC, have developed a new gene transfer approach that uses an adeno-associated virus vector...
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Scientists regenerate retinal cells in mice
Scientists have successfully regenerated cells in the retina of adult mice at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Their results raise the hope that someday it may be possible to repair retinas damaged by trauma, glaucoma and other eye diseases. Their efforts are part of the UW Medicine Institute for Stem Cell...
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Using CRISPR, scientists efficiently edit genome of viable human embryos
In a step that some of the nation’s leading scientists have long warned against and that has never before been accomplished, biologists in Oregon have edited the DNA of viable human embryos efficiently and apparently with few mistakes, according to a report in Technology Review. The experiment, using the revolutionary genome-editing technique CRISPR-Cas9, was led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon...
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How genetically engineered viruses develop into effective vaccines
Lentiviral vectors are virus particles that can be used as a vaccine to stimulate the immune system to fight against specific pathogens. The vectors are derived from HIV, rendered non-pathogenic, and then engineered to carry genetic material into the body’s immune cells; the genes program the cells to fight specific pathogens. New research from the...
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Researchers overcome suppression of immune response against bacterial pathogens
New therapeutic approach for pneumonia Researchers from Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin were able to positively influence the immune response in severe viral and bacterial co-infection. Using a human lung tissue model, they were able to show that the immune mechanisms triggered by viral pathogens prevent the tissue from mounting an effective response against a simultaneously...
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COX-2 inhibitors may reverse IDO1-mediated immunosuppression in some cancers
Study provides rationale for adding COX-2 inhibitors to improve anti-PD1 immunotherapy response In preclinical studies, tumors that consitutively expressed the protein indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO1) responded to the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor celecoxib (Celebrex) and had improved infiltration of certain subsets of T cells, making them more likely to respond to anti-PD1 therapies, report researchers in Cancer Immunology...