Posted Today When cells in our bodies need to move—to attack infection or heal a wound, for example—cellular proteins send and receive a cascade of signals that directs the cells to the right place at the right time. It’s a process cancer cells can hijack to spread to new tissues and organs. Now, a team...
Category: <span>Proteomics</span>
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Immune Cell Identity Crisis: What Makes a Liver Macrophage a Liver Macrophage?
Posted Today Every tissue in the human body has an immune cell in it called a macrophage. Macrophages play important roles in the immune system’s initial response to bacteria, viruses and wounds. But beyond that, each tissue macrophage also has specialized functions, tuned to the needs of that particular tissue. For example, macrophages in the brain, called microglia, help support normal brain development....
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Blocking a hormone’s action in immune cells may reduce heart disease risk
by American Physiological Society Blocking the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR)—a protein that helps maintain normal levels of salt and water in the body—in immune cells may help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by improving blood vessel health. The study will be presented today at the American Physiological Society (APS) Aldosterone and ENaC in...
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Scientists have identified the presence of cancer-suppressing cells in pancreatic cancer
by Nagoya University A research team led by Nagoya University has revealed that cells containing a protein called Meflin have a role in restraining the progression of pancreatic cancer, a type of cancer that is hard to treat with traditional anti-cancer drugs. The team has also shown that cancer progression can be limited by artificially...
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How IL-6 allows the immune response to develop for a key cell, the T follicular helper
These preclinical findings may have therapeutic potential for autoimmune diseases like lupus. UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The body’s immune response fights against infectious disease, and it safeguards against future infections through vaccination. However, if the immune response dysfunctions and attacks the body itself, it can cause autoimmune disease. Thus, a healthy...
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Common cold stopped by experimental approach
By James Gallagher | Health and science correspondent, BBC News Scientists think they have found a way to stop the common cold and closely related viruses which can cause paralysis. Instead of trying to attack them directly, the researchers targeted an essential protein inside our cells which the viruses need to replicate. The approach gave “complete protection” in experiments on...
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Identifying new important players in insulin homeostasis
by La Trobe University Researchers from La Trobe University in Australia and the Paul Langerhans Institute Dresden, partner in the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.), in Germany have identified that the protein Atp6ap2 is essential for the correct functioning of pancreatic beta cells. When this protein was switched off in the beta cells...
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Scientists isolate protective proteins that influence outcomes for type 2 diabetes
by Trinity College Dublin Scientists from the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, have, for the first time, discovered a family of proteins that are associated with lower blood sugar levels among obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Their research is published today in the international journal Nature Communications. The study showed that patients with type 2 diabetes who have high levels...
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Solving long-sought protein structure opens new avenues for treating disease
by Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys have identified the long-sought structure of an essential blood protein: vitronectin. Knowing the protein’s structure—an advance that enables rational drug design—could lead to medicines that kill multi-drug-resistant bacteria, halt cancer metastasis, treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and more. The study was published in...
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Researchers identify biomarker to predict if someone infected with malaria will get sick
by Cell Press Immunological signatures can predict whether malaria-infected children will develop fever or other symptoms, suggests a study publishing September 3 in the journal Immunity. Surprisingly, activation of the well-known tumor-suppressor protein p53 is associated with enhanced protection against malaria fever—and increasing p53 in human immune cells and in mice results in a decrease in...