Feature Channels: Immunology

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Biomedical investigators at Cedars-Sinai have identified an enzyme found in all human cells that alerts the body to invading bacteria and jump-starts the immune system. In their study, published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Cell, the investigators provide clues to unraveling some of the mysteries surrounding the human immune system, which defends the body against harmful microbes such as bacteria.

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A study from Emory AIDS researchers shows how the expected disease severity when someone is newly infected by HIV reflects a balance between the virus' invisibility to the host's immune system and its ability to reproduce.

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Investigators at UAB have identified an intriguing potential treatment target for the most common form of Guillain-Barré syndrome. In a new study, the authors offer evidence of a crucial pathogenic role for a molecule that is associated with AIDP, the most common variant of Guillain-Barré syndrome.

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A growing body of research points to the involvement of inflammation and the immune system on the development of cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular physiologists and immunologists will meet to explore how these mechanisms interact at the Inflammation, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease conference in Westminster, Colo., on Aug. 24–27, 2016.

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The National Institutes of Health has awarded Dr. Luis Martinez of New York Institute of Technology a $431,700 three-year grant to investigate, in mice, methamphetamine's effects on the underlying biological mechanisms that cause inflammation and impair wound healing. Martinez hopes his findings can form the foundation for new studies on human subjects that might lead to targeted prevention and wound management.

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Monroe Clinic hospitalist, Kate Kinney, is one of three medical professionals to earn the 2016 Vasculitis Foundation V-RED Award honoring her early diagnosis of a rare, autoimmune vasculitis disease. Kinney and her team's early identification of the illness allowed the patient to begin critical treatment before any further organ damage could occur.

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In the late 1800s, William B. Coley created a concoction out of bacteria and injected it into cancer patients. The first patient treated with what became known as “Coley’s Toxins” — a 21-year-old man with an inoperable tumor — was cured of his cancer. Though that might not have been the very first foray into immunotherapy as cancer treatment, it certainly was one of the earliest. Coley spent decades studying how bacterial infections affected cancers, earning him the moniker of the “father of immunotherapy.” Since then, the field has come a long way.

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Four leading cancer research organizations will host a conference dedicated to the latest in cancer immunotherapy.

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A new drug therapy for peripheral T-cell lymphoma has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the FDA and the University of Louisville will be the site of first-in-human study

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A study that indicates how advanced melanoma responds to an immunotherapy, published in Cancer Discovery, demonstrates a revolutionary approach from The University of Texas MD Anderson Moon Shots Program that relies on longitudinal sampling and deep molecular analyses to understand the dynamics of cancer response to treatment.

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Immune response measured in tumor biopsies during the course of early treatment predicts which melanoma patients will benefit from specific immune checkpoint blockade drugs, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal Cancer Discovery.

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A briefing featuring short presentations on key data shared at the 5th International Symposium on Focused Ultrasound. Experts will highlight clinical outcomes and advances in the use of focused ultrasound – a non-invasive therapeutic technology – to treat brain disorders, cancers, pain and hypertension. A Q&A and opportunity for interviews will follow.

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A new study in mice suggests that in a tumor’s pre-clinical stages, long before a human tumor would be clinically recognizable, certain immune cells can recognize changes that make these cells behave as cancerous cells and attempt to launch an immune attack. However, the T cells that are recognizing these “driver” mutations in the tumor are rapidly turned off and then permanently silenced, making the cells non-functional and thereby protecting the tumor from an immune attack. If researchers can find a way to reverse that silencing, the tumor-recognizing T cells could be rescued and could potentially improve the performance of certain immunotherapies, including that of so-called checkpoint inhibitor drugs that release some of cancer’s brakes on the immune system.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute now have a high-resolution view of exactly how the experimental therapy ZMapp targets Ebola virus.

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Hay fever may do more than give you a stuffy nose and itchy eyes, seasonal allergies may change the brain, says a study published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.

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Robert Legaspi was 9 years old when he was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This year, at age 27, his leukemia returned for the fourth time. This time was different, though — on May 20, 2016, Legaspi became the first patient in San Diego to receive a new type of immunotherapy, known as CAR T-cell therapy, as part of a Phase I/II clinical trial at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health.

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By probing the differences between two farming communities, an interdisciplinary team of researchers found that substances in the house dust from Amish, but not Hutterite, homes is associated with changes to immune cells that appear to protect children from developing asthma.

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Iowa State University researchers have identified a protein essential for building memories that appears to predict the progression of memory loss and brain atrophy in Alzheimer’s patients. Their findings suggest there is a link between brain activity and the presence of this protein.

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Patients suffering from so-called immune-mediated neuropathies frequently have a long medical record. As there are no diagnostic tests available to reliably diagnose the disease, the diagnosis is frequently made belatedly and patients can be misdiagnosed. Accordingly, many years often pass before an effective therapy is started. However, not all patients respond to first-choice drugs even when treated immediately.

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Media are encouraged to register to attend the second annual International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference organized by the Cancer Research Institute, Association for Cancer Immunotherapy, European Academy of Tumor Immunology, and the American Association for Cancer Research.

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Cancer immunotherapy drugs that block the inhibitory PD-1 pathway have shown success in clinical trials and are now FDA-approved for melanoma, lung cancer and bladder cancer. Yet many patients' tumors do not respond to these drugs.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found an important innate immunity role for a gene linked to a rare, fatal syndrome in children. Their study has implications for a much more common disease: tuberculosis.

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A new study, led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute, reveals a surprising twist in immune biology, suggesting that members of a cluster of microRNAs work together throughout the different stages of immune cell generation.

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A type of targeted therapy that has shown promising results treating advanced melanoma could also be used to help speed up how the skin repairs itself from injury, UCLA researchers have found, providing a potential new way to accelerate healing of acute and chronic wounds.

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Roche today announced approval of the VENTANA PD-L1 (SP142) Assay1 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a complementary diagnostic to provide PD-L1 status on patients who are considering treatment with the FDA approved Roche immunotherapy TECENTRIQ™ (atezolizumab) for metastatic urothelial cancer (mUC). This test is the first to evaluate patient PD-L1 status using immune cell staining and scoring within the tumor microenvironment, providing clinicians with information that may guide immunotherapy decisions2.

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One of the main mysteries confounding development of an HIV vaccine is why some people infected with the virus make the desired antibodies after several years, but a vaccine can’t seem to induce the same response.

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New research from Roswell Park Cancer Institute offers clinicians treating patients with advanced liver cancer a way of determining which patients may benefit most from the targeted therapy sorafenib.

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Sam Sanderson, Ph.D., a research associate professor in the UNMC College of Pharmacy, recently secured an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health to find a workable solution to the problem of antibiotic resistance.

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Research into Africa's first 'screen-and-treat' programme for hepatitis B suggests the initiative may reduce deadly complications of the virus.

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Announcement of winners of the 2016 William B. Coley and Frederick W. Alt Awards, celebrating key scientific contributions to the fields of immunology, tumor immunology (also known as immuno-oncology), and cancer immunotherapy.

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American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA) announced today its July Autoimmune Heroes.

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Exposure to airborne dust and high temperatures are significant risk factors for bacterial meningitis, a new study by the University of Liverpool's Institute of Infection and Global Health has found.

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Research published today in the journal, Nature Communications, provides new insights into the evolution of Mucorales fungi, which cause a fatal infection in ever-increasing segments of patient population, and several molecular pathways that might be exploited as potential therapeutic or diagnostic targets.

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UAB has implemented a new application suite to improve clinical trial management, and enhance communication among trial sites and with study participants.

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The two teams will receive a total of more than $5 million to study immune defense mechanisms in the intestine.

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Scientists at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have identified over 100 new genetic regions that affect the immune response to cancer. The findings, published in Cancer Immunology Research, could inform the development of future immunotherapies—treatments that enhance the immune system’s ability to kill tumors. By analyzing a large public genomic database, the scientists found 122 potential immune response drivers—genetic regions in which mutations correlate with immune cell infiltration into tumors.

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Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) and the Max F. Perutz Laboratories (MFPL) in Vienna have discovered a new way to turn the immune system’s weapons against fungal invaders. This knowledge could lead to the development of new and improved anti-fungal treatments.

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WORCESTER, MA - A long non-coding RNA (lincRNA) - called lincRNA-EPS - responsible for regulating innate immunity has been identified by a team of scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Abundantly found in macrophages, lincRNA-EPS keeps the genes that trigger inflammation turned off until a pathogen is encountered. This discovery points to an unrecognized role for lincRNAs in the immune system and may lead to new insights into inflammatory diseases caused by uncontrolled immune responses such as lupus or inflammatory bowel disease.

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University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers report a new quality-control checkpoint function in developing B cells, cells that produce antibodies to protect the body from pathogens.

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The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, Inc. (AARDA) is spotlighting two new research studies originally reported in ScienceDaily.

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In a report appearing in the July 12 issue of JAMA, an HIV/AIDS theme issue, Huldrych F. Gunthard, M.D., of University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, and colleagues with the International Antiviral Society-USA panel, updated recommendations for the use of antiretroviral therapy in adults with established HIV infection, including when to start treatment, initial regimens, and changing regimens, along with recommendations for using antiretroviral drugs for preventing HIV among those at risk, including preexposure and postexposure prevention.

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Philadelphia, PA, July 7, 2016 - Patients with multiple sclerosis have higher rates of depression than the general population, including people with other life-long disabling diseases. Symptoms of multiple sclerosis arise from an abnormal response of the body's immune system. Immune response has also been linked to depression, leading researchers to think it could be a shared pathological mechanism that leads to the increased rates of depressive symptoms in patients with multiple sclerosis.

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Research from life scientists at The University of Manchester has shone new light on the way cells tune in to different inflammatory signals to understand what is happening in the body.

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A receptor, first known for its role in mediating the harmful effects of the environmental pollutant dioxin in our body, is now understood to play other important roles in modulating the innate immune response.

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A powerful arm of the immune system is production of antibodies that circulate through the blood and neutralize invading pathogens. Although B cells actually manufacture antibody proteins, the process is aided by neighboring T cells, which shower B cells with cytokines to make them churn out high-quality antibody proteins—and remember how to do so. Given the essential function of "helper" T cells, researchers have long sought to define biological signals that encourage their development.

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Viruses must avoid a host’s immune system to establish successful infections—and scientists have discovered another tool that viruses use to frustrate host defenses. New research demonstrates a novel mechanism by which viruses shut down alarm signals that trigger immune responses. This finding may open the door to future tools for controlling unwanted inflammation in severe infections, cancers and other settings.

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The immune system in the elderly is dysfunctional and infections are more prevalent, more severe, and harder to defeat. Drinking alcohol has a variety of damaging effects on the immune system and organs – like the gut, liver and lung – which can be worsened by pre-existing conditions as well as consumption of prescription and over-the-counter medications that aged individuals often take. This presentation addresses how alcohol affects the elderly more dramatically, and also suppresses their ability to battle infections, like pneumonia, much more severely than it does younger individuals.

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Wide-ranging species may have different levels of bacterial immunity than their rarer relatives, new research suggests.

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Previous exposure to the dengue virus may increase the potency of Zika infection, according to research from Imperial College London.