by Annie Curtis, The Conversation Our body clock has evolved over millions of years to help us survive. Credit: kanyanat wongsa/ Shutterstock When microorganisms—such as bacteria or viruses—infect us, our immune system jumps into action. It’s highly trained to sense and eliminate infections and clear up any damage caused by them. It’s typically assumed our immune systems...
by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Credit: CC0 Public Domain Despite a name straight from a Tarantino movie, natural killer (NK) cells are your allies when it comes to fighting infections and cancer. If T cells are like a team of specialist doctors in an emergency room, NK cells are the paramedics: They arrive first on...
by Delthia Ricks , Medical Xpress Artistic rendering of the surface of a human dendritic cell illustrating sheet-like processes that fold back onto the membrane surface. Credit: National Institutes of Health (NIH) When pathogens invade or tumor cells emerge, the immune system is alerted by danger signals that summon a key battalion of first responders,...
by Allison Hydzik, University of Pittsburgh 3D rendering of a B cell. Credit: Blausen.com staff (2014). “Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014”. WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). The immune system’s B cells have the unique distinction of being the only cells in the human body that evolve, in real time—and an international team of scientists announced...
A groundbreaking study led by engineering and medical researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities shows how engineered immune cells used in new cancer therapies can overcome physical barriers to allow a patient’s own immune system to fight tumors. The research could improve cancer therapies in the future for millions of people worldwide. The research is published...
by The Mount Sinai Hospital Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Artificial food colorants can cause disease when the immune system has become dysregulated, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers report. The study, published in Cell Metabolism in May, was the first to show this phenomenon. The study, conducted in mice, found that the mice developed colitis when they consumed...
by Tiare Dunlap, University of California, Los Angeles Six of the children who received treatment at UCLA through the gene therapy clinical trials. Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center An experimental form of gene therapy developed by a team of researchers from UCLA and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London has successfully treated 48 of 50 children born with...
by University of California – San Diego Human enzyme METTL3 adds methyl groups to introduce m6A in SARS-CoV-2’s RNA. That modification prevents the virus’ RNA from triggering inflammatory molecules known as cytokines. METTL3 also leads to increased expression of pro-viral genes — those that encode proteins needed for SARS-CoV-2 replication and survival. Credit: University of California...
by Aalto University Credit: Jani Huuhtanen, Biorender.com With an artificial intelligence (AI) method developed by researchers at Aalto University and University of Helsinki, researchers can now link immune cells to their targets and for example uncouple which white blood cells recognize SARS-CoV-2. The developed tool has broad applications in understanding the function of immune system in infections, autoimmune disorders, and...
by Robert Finberg, The Conversation Credit: Chart: The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: Gee J, Marquez P, Su J, et al. First Month of COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Monitoring — United States, December 14, 2020–January 13, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:283–288 If someone gets a headache or feels a bit under the weather after receiving a COVID-19...
