To effectively combat an infection, the body first has to sense it’s been invaded, and then the affected tissue must send signals to corral resources to fight the intruder. Knowing more about these early stages of pathogen recognition and response may provide scientists with crucial clues when it comes to preventing infections or treating inflammatory...
by University of Pennsylvania Credit: CC0 Public Domain To effectively combat an infection, the body first has to sense it’s been invaded, then the affected tissue must send out signals to corral resources to fight the intruder. Knowing more about these early stages of pathogen recognition and response may provide scientists with crucial clues when it...
Parasitic worms could offer a new treatment hope for patients suffering from the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis, according to experts from the University of Nottingham. The findings of the research, published in the journal JAMA Neurology, show that infecting MS patients with a safe dose of the hookworm parasite Necator americanus induces immunoregulatory responses and...
by Durland Fish, The Conversation In the 1970s, an epidemic of mysterious arthritis-like symptoms began spreading among children in the lushly wooded area around Lyme, Connecticut. Scientists traced the cause to tick bites and named it Lyme disease, but why it had suddenly appeared there was a mystery. Similar symptoms had been documented on Long...
Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor) Treatment with two common FDA-approved gout medications have been found to cause rapid death to the parasites that cause elephantiasis. Researchers at the Uniformed Services University (USU) have discovered that sulfinpyrazone and probenecid, both used regularly for gout, have a lethal effect in vitro on the parasitic worms that...
A study involving researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) has found that platelets can attack and kill malaria parasites—reducing the number of parasites circulating in the blood. Credit: CC0 Public Domain The study, which has just been published in the prestigious journal Blood, was led by Associate Professor Brendan McMorran at ANU and Professor Nick Anstey at...
