By Clare Knight, B.Sc. Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc. Hepatitis is a general term to describe inflammation of the liver tissue. Although it can arise from several causes, hepatitis from a viral infection is the most common. Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a rare and chronic disorder occurring when the body’s immune system attacks the liver...
by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A team of researchers from Italy, the U.K. and the U.S. has isolated a number of immune cell-related genetic variants that may impact autoimmune conditions. In their paper published in the journal Nature Genetics, the group describes the host of tools and techniques they used to...
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...
Tumor cells in younger and female patients accumulate cancer-causing mutations that are more poorly presented to the immune system, better enabling tumors to escape detection and clearance UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SAN DIEGO DUE TO A PROCESS KNOWN AS IMMUNO-EDITING, YOUNGER AND FEMALE PATIENTS WITH CANCER HAVE CANCER-CAUSING GENETIC MUTATIONS THAT ARE LEAST VISIBLE TO...
by Alice McCarthy, Harvard Medical School Researchers have found that an existing drug, apilimod, prevented infection of human cells with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Credit: Tomas Kirchhausen New lab-based studies show that two existing drugs, including one developed by a researcher at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, inhibit SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—from infecting...
Scientists from the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) and Temple University in Philadelphia, Penn., have demonstrated that a salmonella biofilm protein can cause autoimmune responses and arthritis in animals. Salmonella was previously thought to only form biofilms in the environment, such as on food processing surfaces....
by Temple University Like the infrastructure of an apartment building, a fibrous protein known as curli amyloid that is produced by bacteria provides the supportive framework for biofilms—thick extracellular substances made by bacteria that enable multiple bacterial cells to assemble, survive, and thrive together. Curli amyloid, however, is also a key factor in diarrheal illness...
Myriad Genetics on Monday said insurer Aetna and two other health plans have agreed to cover its Prolaris genetic test that measures tumor cell growth to provide an assessment of how quickly a patient’s prostate cancer may progress. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and a third insurer that Myriad did not identify by name will also...
by Radboud University Nijmegen Silicone molecules from breast implants can initiate processes in human cells that lead to cell death. Researchers from Radboud University have demonstrated this in a new study published on 12 June in Scientific Reports. “However, there are still many questions about what this could mean for the health effects of silicone...
