Feature Channels: Immunology

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The virus that causes COVID-19 takes over the body’s fat-processing system and boosts cellular triglycerides as it causes disease.

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Researchers identify new mechanism that teaches immune cells-in-training to spare the body’s own tissues while attacking pathogens.

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With the vaccine for children ages 6 months and older approved, the experts at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles provide guidance for families. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone approved to receive a COVID-19 vaccine get one—including children ages 6 months and older.

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A study of 10,775 high-risk adult patients during the COVID-19 delta variant surge in late 2021 finds that treatment with one of three anti-spike neutralizing monoclonal antibodies for mild to moderate symptoms led to low rates of severe disease, hospitalization, ICU admission and mortality, according to Mayo Clinic researchers.

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In a new study sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers provide additional evidence that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy helps protect babies younger than 6 months from being hospitalized due to COVID-19. The risk of COVID-19 hospitalization among babies was reduced by about 80 percent during the Delta wave (July 1–December 18, 2021) and 40 percent during the Omicron wave (December 19–March 8, 2022).

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Wistar announces that for the first time it will globally stream its 26th Annual Jonathan Lax Memorial Award Lecture, celebrating 26 years of providing state-of-research updates to the community, on Tuesday, June 28 from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. EST.

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A $10 million grant over four years will support further examination of a national study looking at COVID-19 vaccination safety during pregnancy and immune response pre-and post-delivery for both mom and baby.

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Start preparing now to make your 4th of July holiday allergy and asthma-free.

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Aresearch team is testing a protein block to suppress specific cells of the body’s immune system contribute to developing type 1 diabetes. If successful, the drug would diminish autoimmunity, preserving the body’s ability to naturally produce more insulin, the researchers said.

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The study found that Omicron-specific antibodies reached detectable levels in 86% of nursing home residents and 93% of healthcare workers after receiving the booster shot, compared to just 28% of nursing home residents and healthcare workers after the initial two-dose COVID-19 vaccine series.

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According to a paper published in Frontiers in Oncology, daily use of a unique mushroom extract AHCC® supported the immune system in clearing HPV infections in two-thirds of study participants after six months of supplementation.

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Researchers have discovered epidermal immunity from nighttime bacterial invasion in mice when the expression of the CXCL14 signaling protein was higher than during the daytime. The circadian-dependent role of CXCL14 is crucial as it transports important DNA into immune cells.

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New understanding of protein function also has implications for immunotherapies

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Rabies virus kills a shocking 59,000 people each year, many of them children. In a new study, researchers from La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Institut Pasteur share a promising path to better vaccine design.

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A new study examining how to harness one’s immune system to eliminate metastatic breast cancer (MBC) tumors in the body is receiving a three-year $600,000 grant from Susan G. Komen®, the world’s leading breast cancer organization.

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The origins of our blood may not be quite what we thought. Using cellular “barcoding” in mice, a groundbreaking study finds that blood cells originate not from one type of mother cell, but two, with potential implications for blood cancers, bone marrow transplant, and immunology. Fernando Camargo, PhD, of the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children’s Hospital led the study, published in Nature on June 15.

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Two broadly neutralizing antibodies show great promise to provide long-acting immunity against COVID-19 in immunocompromised populations according to a paper published June 15 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM). The antibodies were effective against all SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern tested and could be used alone or in an antibody cocktail to diminish the risk of infection.

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Researchers have unmasked a component of the cell death process that could play a vital role in a better infection-fighting strategy.

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Here are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Aging channel on Newswise, a free source for journalists.

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Advances in nanotechnology have made it possible to fabricate structures out of DNA for use in biomedical applications like delivering drugs or creating vaccines, but new research in mice investigates the safety of the technology.

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New research from UT Southwestern suggests that RNA exosomes – the cellular machines that degrade old molecules of RNA – play a key role in the development of B cells, which are critical to the immune system’s ability to protect against infection. The findings, published in Science Immunology, explain why patients with rare mutations in a gene that codes for this machinery are often immunodeficient and could offer new approaches to treat autoimmune diseases.

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Inactivated and mRNA COVID-19 vaccines appear to be safe for patients treated for hypothyroidism, according to a new study being presented at ENDO 2022, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga. The study found these vaccines do not cause significant fluctuations in thyroid function and are not associated with increased risks of emergency department visits or unscheduled hospitalizations.

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McMaster University scientists who compared respiratory vaccine-delivery systems have confirmed that inhaled aerosol vaccines provide far better protection and stronger immunity than nasal sprays.

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As a worldwide shortage of contrast dye for medical imaging continues, a new UC San Francisco research letter in JAMA quantified strategies medical facilities can employ to safely reduce dye use in computed tomography (CT) by up to 83%. CT is the most common use for the dye.

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A research team led by UCLA’s Anusha Kalbasi, MD, has shown that a synthetic IL-9 receptor allows cancer-fighting T cells to do their work without the need for chemotherapy or radiation.

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Protein complexes that play a critical role in launching an immune response assemble in droplets that form within the liquid environment in cells much like oil droplets in water, UT Southwestern scientists report in a new study. The findings, published in Molecular Cell, could lead to new interventions to regulate immunity in individuals with overactive or underactive immune responses.

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Sepsis, the body’s overreaction to an infection, affects more than 1.5 million people and kills at least 270,000 every year in the U.S. alone. The standard treatment of antibiotics and fluids is not effective for many patients, and those who survive face a higher risk of death. In new research, the lab of Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong at the University of Wisconsin–Madison reported a new nanoparticle-based treatment that delivers anti-inflammatory molecules and antibiotics.

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Cedars-Sinai clinicians and scientists, including anti-rejection therapy pioneer Stanley Jordan, MD, will share their latest advances in research at the American Transplant Congress (ATC), June 4-8, 2022, in Boston. The ATC is the joint annual meeting of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the American Society of Transplantation.

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The claim that the available COVID-19 vaccines are behind the monkeypox outbreak, and that monkeypox is basically shingles, which they claim is a side effect of the vaccines, is entirely false.

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Protection against symptomatic COVID-19 begins to decrease after one month from initial vaccination, while immunity against severe COVID-19 remains high for about six months, according to a recent study by Penn State College of Medicine scientists.

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A National Institutes of Health-funded study has found that people with food allergies are less likely to become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, than people without them.

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"Just understanding the immune responses to these vaccines will help us integrate what is successful into vaccine designs going forward.”

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Adults infected with COVID-19 develop circulating antibodies that last for nearly 500 days, according to a new study led by researchers at UTHealth School of Public Health.

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Tiny antibodies in sharks have dexterity and flexibility that human antibodies do not. They can bind tightly to the spike proteins of coronaviruses and neutralize the virus. This could help researchers develop new vaccines and therapies for COVID-19.

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One powerful way cancer cells defend against tumor-killing immune cells is to load up their cell surface with a protein known as PD-L1. Now a team of UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers led by Roger S. Lo, MD, PhD, has identified a method to degrade tumor cell-surface PD-L1, thereby making tumors susceptible to immune attack.

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Professor George Fu Gao, HKIAS Senior Fellow and the Director-General of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China, was recently elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society for his contributions in the field of infection and immunity, particularly relating to emerging viral infections, have helped to improve our understanding of major threats to human health.

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Research drawing on the national Overcoming COVID-19 study, led by Boston Children’s Hospital, and the hospital’s own Taking On COVID-19 Together Group provides evidence that children who previously had COVID-19 (or the inflammatory condition MIS-C) are not protected against the newer Omicron variant.

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Cedars-Sinai investigators have identified a gene that plays an essential role in the innate human immune system. The gene, NLRP11, helps activate the inflammatory response that tells the body’s white blood cells to go on the attack against a foreign presence.

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A case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine provides evidence that enterovirus D68 directly infects spinal cord neurons and that a corresponding robust immune response is present – a direct causation to the polio-like paralyzing illness, acute flaccid myelitis (AFM). Matthew Vogt, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics and microbiology & immunology at the UNC School of Medicine is the lead author of the study.

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Scientists at the University of Michigan fabricated a nanoparticle to deliver an inhibitor to brain tumor in mouse models, where the drug successfully turned on the immune system to eliminate the cancer. The process also triggered immune memory so that a reintroduced tumor was eliminated—a sign that this potential new approach could not only treat brain tumors but prevent or delay recurrences.

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In a new study, researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Amsterdam have brought insight into one crucial step in the anti-cancer immune response process: T cell priming.

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Immune response and the lymphatic system are central to cardiac repair after a heart attack, according to a study from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute. These insights into the basic mechanisms of cardiac repair are the first step towards developing novel therapeutic approaches to preserve heart function. Findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.