by Mariana Brussoni, The Conversation What if there was a simple, inexpensive and fun way to address some of the major challenges facing humanity today. What if it could help improve children’s health, development and well-being? Imagine a solution that could stem the current epidemics of obesity, anxiety and depression affecting children and youth today. Imagine that...
Tag: <span>Immunity</span>
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New regulator of immune responses discovered
Scientists have identified a new internal regulator that helps control the body’s response to fight infection. The discovery could be a target for new drugs to tackle autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and scleroderma, where healthy tissues are attacked by the body’s own immune system. The international collaboration was led by the University of Leeds and University of Pennsylvania and involved researchers from...
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FDA-approved drug effectively treats rare chronic immune disorder
A drug approved to treat a severe form of asthma dramatically improved the health of people with rare chronic immune disorders called hypereosinophilic syndromes (HES) in whom other treatments were ineffective or intolerable. This finding comes from a small clinical trial led by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part...
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First two-drug regimen approved for HIV-1 treatment
(HealthDay)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced the approval of Dovato (dolutegravir and lamivudine), the first approved two-drug, fixed-dose, complete regimen for adults with HIV-1 who have not been previously treated with antiretroviral medication. Dovato is indicated for patients with no known or suspected substitutions associated with resistance to the drug’s individual components. As opposed to the standard-of-care three-drug regimen, Dovato provides patients with the option of...
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Autoimmune diseases are related to each other, some more than others
by The Endocrine Society Researchers using the world’s largest twin registry to study seven autoimmune diseases found the risk of developing the seven diseases is largely inherited, but that some diseases are more closely related than others. These results will be presented Sunday at ENDO 2019, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in New Orleans, La. “These results...
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Christmas berry’ plant compound could fight Uveal melanoma
A molecule derived from a type of primrose could prove to be a potent inhibitor of metastatic growth for a rare and aggressive cancer THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY PHILADELPHIA–Doctors diagnose about 2000 adults with uveal melanoma, a cancer of the eye, every year. In half of cases, the disease metastasizes to the liver. For these patients...
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Types of Antibodies
Antibodies are glycoproteins, termed as immunoglobulins (Igs), which are produced in response to an immune reaction and specifically bind to antigens responsible for initiating the reaction. Antibody structure An antibody is composed of two heavy chains (50 KD each) and two light chains (25 KD each), which are joined by disulfide bonds to form a ‘Y’ shaped structure (150...
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Gut immune cells cut inflammation in multiple sclerosis
Researchers at the University of Toronto and UC San Francisco have discovered that the intestine is the source of immune cells that reduce brain inflammation in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), and that increasing the number of these cells blocks inflammation entirely in a preclinical model of the disease. The cells in question are plasma...
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Blood test could lead to cystic fibrosis treatment tailored to each patient
Researchers at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and colleagues, used a blood test and microarray technology to identify distinct molecular signatures in children with cystic fibrosis. These patterns of gene expression ultimately could help predict disease severity and treatment response, and lead to therapies tailored to each patient‘s precise biology. Findings were published in Physiological Genomics. “Our findings pave the way...
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Innate Immunity Differs Across Species and Cells, Gene Expression Study Finds
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Some innate immune system genes have evolved rapidly and vary widely in their expression across species and individual cells, while others are more conserved and consistent, according to a new study. The innate immune response kicks into gear upon infection to both inhibit pathogen replication and raise the alarm. This response...