By Marzia KhanReviewed by Danielle Ellis, B.Sc. What is inflammation?Inflammation is an immune response from the body’s immune system when there is a perceived injury or infection. When injured, inflammation causes the area to become red and swell due to a large number of white blood cells flowing into the area to fight against infection...
by La Jolla Institute for Immunology Scanning electron micrograph of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, which cause TB. Credit: NIAID Everyone breathes in Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) bacteria from time to time, but most people don’t get sick. These bacteria, cousins of the deadly Mycobacterium tuberculosis, tend to live out their harmless little lives in food, soil, water, or...
by Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research Susceptibility-associated signatures are associated with antimicrobial effect. When assayed using our FAST protocol, population-level changes in multiparametric distribution can be observed as reproducible patterns of deviation from the antimicrobial unexposed population (bounded in purple). Absence of these patterns can be used to determine a lack of susceptibility (i.e., resistance)...
by NYU Langone Health Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A connective tissue protein known to support the framework of organs also encourages immune responses that fight bacterial infections, while restraining responses that can be deadly in the condition called sepsis, a new study finds. Led by researchers from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the work revolves around the extracellular matrix (ECM)...
by Brandie Jefferson, Washington University in St. Louis Engineers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a microneedle patch that can be applied to the skin, capture a biomarker of interest from interstitial fluid and, thanks to its unprecedented sensitivity, allow clinicians to detect its presence. Credit: Sisi Cao...
Scientists studying the body’s natural defenses against bacterial infection have identified a nutrient — taurine — that helps the gut recall prior infections and kill invading bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kpn). The finding, published in the journal Cell by scientists from five institutes of the National Institutes of Health, could aid efforts seeking alternatives to antibiotics. Scientists know...
by Association RUVID Credit: CC0 Public Domain A study directed by Isabel Fariñas and published in the journal Cell Stem Cell reveals that the inflammation produced by a bacterial infection alerts brain stem cells and prepares their activation for the production of new neurons. The study represents a new advance in the field of regenerative medicine. Tissues are...
by Jeff Hansen, University of Alabama at Birmingham Parkinson’s disease is a common, progressive and debilitating neurodegenerative disease. It currently cannot be prevented or cured. In 2003, Heiko Braak proposed that non-inherited forms of PD are caused by a pathogen in the gut. He hypothesized that the pathogen could pass through the intestinal mucosal barrier...
New rainproof, stainproof technology turns clothing into self-powered remotes PURDUE UNIVERSITY WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A new addition to your wardrobe may soon help you turn on the lights and music – while also keeping you fresh, dry, fashionable, clean and safe from the latest virus that’s going around. Purdue University researchers have developed a new fabric innovation that...
by Howard Hughes Medical Institute The patient, a 15-year-old girl, had come to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for a double lung transplant. It was the summer of 2017, and her lungs were struggling to reach even a third of their normal function. She had cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that clogs lungs with mucus and plagues...
