Daniela Latorre wanted to be a scientist since she was a child. At the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, affiliated to the USI in Bellinzona and the Institute of Microbiology, she is finding evidence that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease. She has now received the Pfizer Prize for Research 2020 for her pioneering work. “This is my very first...
by Julie Langelier, Gladstone Institutes Credit: CC0 Public Domain An important part of the brain’s immune system, cells called microglia constantly extend and retract “branches” from their cell body to survey their environment. Think of an octopus, not moving its body, but reaching its tentacles in every direction. That’s how microglia operate. In the span of...
by Steven Schultz, Princeton University In this artist’s rendering, a component of the human immune system known as a T cell, in the lower left position, attacks a cancer cell, upper right. Credit: Lim Lab One of the most promising new cancer therapies involves engineering cells from the body’s own immune system to attack tumors, but...
New findings may provide new therapeutic target and help explain why IBD and other autoimmune diseases are often chronic and life-long UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SAN DIEGO COLORIZED SCANNING ELECTRON MICROGRAPH OF A T CELL, A TYPE OF LYMPHOCYTE THAT PLAYS A CENTRAL ROLE IN THE IMMUNE RESPONSE. view more CREDIT: NIAID Inflammatory bowel disease...
Cells that are infected by a virus or carry a carcinogenic mutation, for example, produce proteins foreign to the body. Antigenic peptides resulting from the degradation of these exogenous proteins inside the cell are loaded by the peptide-loading complex onto so-called major histocompatibility complex molecules (MHC for short) and presented on the cell surface. There,...
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...
by Ana María Rodríguez, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine Scanning electron microscopy image of a human lymphocyte. Credit: National Cancer Institute Personalized cancer treatments are no longer just options of the future. In the past few years, researchers have made significant progress in ‘teaching’ the body’s immune T cells to recognize and kill specific cancer...
by Michael Morrison, Massachusetts General Hospital Investigators led by a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have made discoveries at the single cell level to uncover new details concerning mitochondrial diseases—inherited disorders that interfere with energy production in the body and currently have no cure. The findings, which are published in the New England Journal...
Depleting key protein could protect against conditions marked by chronic inflammation UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER ANTI-REELIN IS A THERAPEUTIC APPROACH THAT SELECTIVELY TARGETS THE VASCULAR BARRIER, BLOCKING INFILTRATION OF INFLAMMATORY CELLS, DEMYELINATION AND, CONSEQUENTLY, PARALYSIS. view more CREDIT: UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER DALLAS – Aug. 12, 2020 – In an animal model of multiple sclerosis...
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE A treatment for multiple myeloma that harnesses the body’s cancer-fighting T cells was safe in humans and showed preliminary signs of effectiveness, according to a clinical trial involving 23 patients with relapsed or treatment-resistant disease. Although more research is needed to determine how well the treatment works, the...
