by University of South Carolina Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), when caused by a bacterial toxin known as Staphylococcal enterotoxin, can be completely prevented by treatment with Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant. This exciting finding, recently published in the highly cited British Journal of Pharmacology, also suggests a possible treatment for...
New LJI discovery could help explain patterns of cell death in many autoimmune diseases LA JOLLA INSTITUTE FOR IMMUNOLOGY LA JOLLA–Your pancreas is a little sweet potato-shaped organ that sits snug behind your stomach. The pancreas is studded with islets, the cell clusters that house insulin-producing beta cells. In people with type 1 diabetes, the...
by Ileana Varela, Florida International University The dangers of smoking are common knowledge. Smoking during pregnancy, even second-hand smoke, can hurt both the mother and her child. But her grandchildren? “Second-hand cigarette smoke exposure during pregnancy has damaging effects that could last for generations,” said Hitendra Chand, a biomedical researcher at the Herbert Wertheim College...
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH Researchers have uncovered how the immune system is altered in a rare COVID-19 related illness in children referred to as paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS-TS). PIMS-TS is a rare syndrome which has emerged in a small number of children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The condition causes severe inflammation in blood...
Rutgers researchers discovered a new role the protein may have in helping to treat allergies, asthma, COPD RUTGERS UNIVERSITY A Rutgers-led team may have found the key to treating inflammatory diseases like asthma, allergies, chronic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In a study published in the journal Nature Immunology, researchers discovered that neuromedin...
by La Jolla Institute for Immunology Your immune system’s ‘memory’ T cells keep track of the viruses they have seen before. This immune cell memory gives the cells a headstart in recognizing and fighting off repeat invaders. Now, a new study led by scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) shows that memory helper...
by Aarhus University PaludanDepartment of Biomedicine, Aarhus University Credit: Lars Kruse/Aarhus University An active immune system protects against diseases and infections. An overactive immune system is the body’s worst enemy. One example of this is multiple sclerosis, which is a so-called autoimmune disease, while an overactive immune system also leads to some COVID-19 patients becoming...
TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN When drugs to kill microbes are ineffective, host-directed therapy uses the body’s own immune system to deal with the infection. This approach is being tested in patients with COVID-19, and now a team of researchers at Trinity College Dublin has published a study showing how it might also work in the fight...
by La Jolla Institute for Immunology Scrape your knee, and you’ll see some red puffiness appear around the injury. This is inflammation, and it is driven by the immune system. Inflammation around a scrape is minor, but inflammation around joints—due to diseases like rheumatoid arthritis—can be incredibly painful. And inflammation in and around the blood...
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FRANK DIXON CHAIR IN CANCER IMMUNOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, AND CO-LEADER, CANCER IMMUNOLOGY AND IMMUNOTHERAPY PROGRAM, UPMC HILLMAN CANCER CENTER. view more CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH, July 15, 2020 – Blocking a newly identified “immune memory checkpoint” in immune cells could improve immunotherapy and help prevent cancers from...
