A biomarker is a characteristic that can be objectively measured as an indicator of normal or pathologic biological processes, or as an indicator of response to therapy. As such, biomarkers have generated significant interest within the autoimmune disease research and medical communities because of their potential to help physicians make predictions about disease progression and to...
Tag: <span>Immunity</span>
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Pathogens may evade immune response with metal-free enzyme required for DNA replication
Some bacterial pathogens, including those that cause strep throat and pneumonia, are able to create the components necessary to replicate their DNA without the usually required metal ions. This process may allow infectious bacteria to replicate even when the host’s immune system sequesters iron and manganese ions in an attempt to slow pathogen replication. A new study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National...
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The dual and unknown function of the immune system
CNIC researchers have discovered that the immune system is important not only in the defense against disease but also for the day-to-day function of a healthy organism CENTRO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES CARDIOVASCULARES IMAGE: FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ANDRÉS HIDALGO, MARIA SÁNCHEZ, ANDREA RUBIO, FRANCISCO MAYO, IVÁN BALLESTEROS, ALEJANDRA AROCA, GEORGIANA CRAINICIUC, SANDRA MARTÍN, JUAN QUINTANA, JOSÉ MARÍA ADROVER, ITZIAR COSSÍO, AND...
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Clues to lupus’s autoimmune origins in precursor cells
DN2 B cells expanded in SLE patients EMORY HEALTH SCIENCES In the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE, the immune system produces antibodies against parts of the body itself. How cells that produce those antibodies escape the normal “checks and balances” has been unclear, but recent research from Emory University School of Medicine sheds light...
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Immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat cancer
An important part of the immune system is its ability to tell between normal cells in the body and those it sees as “foreign.” This lets the immune system attack the foreign cells while leaving the normal cells alone. To do this, it uses “checkpoints” – molecules on certain immune cells that need to be...
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Could less deadly therapies be a better way to keep cancer in check?
While many cancer therapies initially can be very successful, tumors often return and spread when remaining cancer cells develop resistance to treatment. To combat this tendency, Frédéric Thomas of the French National Centre for Scientific Research proposes that cancer researchers take a lesson from our own immune system and explore “natural adaptive therapies.” Such an...
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Immune response mechanism described for fate determination of T cells
This knowledge can aid vaccine development, treatment of infections and moderation of autoimmune disease UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – After a pathogen infects the body, the immune system responds with a remarkable — and remarkably complicated — cascade of events. IMAGE: THIS IS CASEY WEAVER. Some immune cells, called lymphocytes, migrate to the...
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Newly discovered skull channels play role in immunity
Researchers have now discovered “tiny channels” that allow the injured brain to communicate with bone marrow in the process of inflammation. These “tunnels” are key to ensuring a quick immune response. Inflammation occurs as an immune response to instances of infection or injury within the body. ‘Tiny channels’ in the skull allow injured brain tissue to...
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Newly found ‘micro-organ’ is immune response ‘headquarters’
We know that our bodies learn how to mount efficient defenses to disease and infection after exposure to such health hazards. In short, our bodies “learn” to identify the culprits and how to destroy them. Where is that “memory” activated and the response mounted? New research finally reveals where the immune response actually starts in the body....