by La Jolla Institute for Immunology Flashback to mid-March: the novel coronavirus had reached San Diego, California. Few people could get tested, and even less was known about how the virus mutated as it spread from person to person. Scientists now know that two variants of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) were circulating at that time....
by National Cancer Institute A drug that is designed to boost the immune system against mesothelioma, when combined with immunotherapy, was found to be beneficial in a small study involving ten patients. The results, which appeared July 1, 2020, in Science Translational Medicine, suggest that the drug LMB-100 could prolong the life of some patients...
MAX DELBRÜCK CENTER FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE IN THE HELMHOLTZ ASSOCIATION THE PROTEIN PDAP1 (RED) IS LOCATED IN THE CYTOPLASM OF B CELLS. view more CREDIT: DI VIRGILIO, MDC Whenever a germ gets into the human body, the immune system usually responds immediately to fight off the enemy attacker. One of our defense system’s most important...
Experiments in mice have shown early success in vaccinating them against potentially deadly bacterial infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcal aureus, or MRSA, the strain resistant to most drug treatments. The new vaccination strategy, developed by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, targets toxic molecules released by all Staphylococcal bacteria, called leukocidins, rather than directly...
become T follicular helper cells (Tfh cells, shown in blue), which work with B cells (shown in green) to produce powerful antibodies. Activated B cells give rise germinal centers (shown in red), where mature B cells proliferate and produce highly specific antibodies against pathogens. Bcl6 blocks the expression of two proteins that normally stop Tfh...
National Institutes of Health investigators and colleagues have discovered that when the immune system first responds to infectious agents such as viruses or bacteria, a natural brake on the response prevents overactivation. Their new study in mBio describes this brake and the way pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, turn it on....
During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and their clinicians have had questions and concerns about whether immunotherapies for MS could influence risk for infection or lead to an unfavorable outcome. In the Journal of Neurology, Rohit Bakshi, MD, a senior neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and international co-authors present the cases...
George D. Lundberg, MD DISCLOSURES June 05, 2020 Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Death is usually fairly easy to diagnose; cause of death, not so much. In fact, death certificates in the United States and around the world are notoriously wrong. How does this happen? Death certificates are...
The body’s immune system can be re-wired to prevent it from recognising its own proteins which, when attacked by the body, can cause autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, a significant new study by UK scientists has found. Autoimmune diseases are caused when the immune system loses its normal focus on fighting infections or disease within...
by Chris Melore WUHAN, China — As the worldwide number of COVID-19 cases reaches five million, the search for a vaccine has taken an important step forward. Researchers say the first human trial of a possible vaccine has been found to be safe and may effectively fight the virus. Scientists in China say 108 healthy adults were given...
