Feature Channels: Immunology

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In the largest U.S. study of venom allergy and mastocytosis prevalence, Michigan Medicine researchers found that people with venom allergy are nearly 10 times more likely to suffer the bone marrow disorder that causes higher risk of fatal reactions. They also found that elevated levels of tryptase, a chemical secreted by allergy cells, may predict if a person is at higher risk for reaction to immunotherapy.

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Reporters and bloggers are invited to join top nutrition researchers and practitioners for a dynamic virtual program at NUTRITION 2021 LIVE ONLINE. The flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition runs June 7–10, 2021 and features research announcements, expert discussions and more.

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A groundbreaking study led by engineering and medical researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities shows how engineered immune cells used in new cancer therapies can overcome physical barriers to allow a patient’s own immune system to fight tumors. The research could improve cancer therapies in the future for millions of people worldwide.

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Researchers have developed first-in-class small-molecule inhibitors against a key leukemia protein, ASH1L.

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Artificial food colorants can cause disease when the immune system has become dysregulated, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers report. The study, published in Cell Metabolism in May, was the first to show this phenomenon.

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Research published in Nature reveals insights into how the body maintains balance with “good” gut bacteria that allows these microbes to flourish in the intestine but keeps them out of tissues and organs where they’re not supposed to be.

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Scientists at the Weizmann Institute and the Israel Institute for Biological, Chemical and Environmental Sciences took a novel tack to investigating SARS-CoV-2’s powerful ability to infect, finding that the virus deploys an apparently unique three-pronged strategy to take over the cell’s protein-synthesis abilities. The work could help develop effective Covid-19 treatments.

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Following a national search, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has promoted Pawel Kalinski, MD, PhD, to Jacobs Family Endowed Chair of Immunology, Chief of the Division of Translational Immuno-Oncology and Senior Vice President for Team Science.

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A new approach to tackling viruses by targeting the 'control centre' in viral RNA could lead to broad spectrum anti-viral drugs and provide a first line of defence against future pandemics, according to new research at the University of Birmingham.

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A University of Kentucky College of Medicine professor has been awarded a $1.9 million NIH grant for his research on the body’s immune response to sepsis, which could potentially help to improve therapies for the common disease.

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Scientists examining the remains of 36 bubonic plague victims from a 16th century mass grave in Germany have found the first evidence that evolutionary adaptive processes, driven by the disease, may have conferred immunity on later generations of people from the region.

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Using whole exome sequencing, CHOP researchers discovered the genetic mutation responsible for a condition that prevents patients from making B cells and antibodies to fight infections. The study describing the condition, which CHOP researchers named PU.1 Mutated agammaglobulinemia (PU.MA), was published today in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

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In a recent perspective article, pathologists outline how the immunome — all of the genes collectively expressed by an individual's immune cells — holds the potential to provide researchers and physicians with unprecedented insight into an individual's health. Collecting that information from large numbers of patients could one day facilitate diagnostics via a near-universal blood test and pave the way to targeted therapies for a wide variety of conditions.

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Every year the World Health Organization recognizes the last week of April as World Immunization Week – a time to celebrate the millions of lives saved and the eradication of multiple diseases because of vaccines. However, access to vaccines is still a barrier for many children in our community, so public health experts with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) are hitting the ground to bring lifesaving immunizations directly to them.

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UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers discovered one way in which SARS-CoV-2 hijacks human cell machinery to blunt the immune response, allowing it to establish infection, replicate and cause disease.

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Tiny molecules called nanobodies, which can be designed to mimic antibody structures and functions, may be the key to blocking a tick-borne bacterial infection that remains out of reach of almost all antibiotics, new research suggests.

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Researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago have designed a completely novel potential treatment for COVID-19: nanoparticles that capture SARS-CoV-2 viruses within the body and then use the body’s own immune system to destroy it.

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Wolters Kluwer, Health announced today the publication of two new, fully open access journals under its Lippincott® portfolio as part of an ongoing collaboration with the Chinese Medical Association (CMA). Cardiology Discovery and Infectious Diseases & Immunity will accelerate the dissemination, exchange, and utilization of scientific research results in their respective fields.

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Victoria Blaho, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Immunity and Pathogenesis Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys, has received the first-ever Lina M. Obeid Award for her promising research on the biology of sphingolipids. The award honors Obeid, a pioneer in the field of sphingolipids and a fierce advocate for women in science. The award was presented at the 11th International Ceramide Conference on April 22, 2021.

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The human immune defense is based on the ability of white blood cells to accurately identify disease-causing pathogens and to initiate a defense reaction against them

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Severe cases of COVID-19 can involve extensive inflammation in the body, and clinicians have wondered if this state is similar to what are called cytokine storm syndromes, in which the immune system produces too many inflammatory signals that can sometimes lead to organ failure and death.

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COVID-19 patients who are overweight or obese are more likely to develop a more severe infection than patients of healthy weight, and they require oxygen and invasive mechanical ventilation more often.

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Scientists have discovered a molecular pathway that counteracts the ability of some viruses to evade the immune response. The findings raise hope in generating better immune responses to viral infections, such as COVID-19, as well as to cancer.

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Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have identified a key target that may be responsible for treatment failure in about 30% of patients with hemophilia A. The target, known as B cell activating factor (BAFF), appears to promote antibodies against and inhibitors of the missing blood clotting factor that is given to these patients to control their bleeding episodes. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, raise the possibility of using anti-BAFF therapies, potentially in combination with immune tolerance therapies, to tame the immune response in some patients with severe hemophilia A.

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McMaster University researchers Ali Ashkar and Sophie Poznanski have uncovered that changing the metabolism of natural killer (NK) immune cells allows these cells to overcome the hostile conditions found inside tumours and destroy advanced ovarian and lung cancer.

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Combining immune-boosting drugs with radiation and surgery increased the survival and anticancer immune response in mouse models of mesothelioma in preclinical research by Princess Margaret Cancer Centre researchers.

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A new study, led by the University of California, Irvine (UCI), reveals how chronic inflammation promotes muscle fibrosis, which could inform the development of new therapies for patients suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a fatal muscle disease.

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In a new Cell Reports study, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology demonstrate how Ebola virus has found a different way to get things done. The virus encodes only eight proteins but requires dozens of functions in its lifecycle. The new study shows how one of Ebola virus’s key proteins, VP40, uses molecular triggers in the human cell to transform itself into different tools for different jobs.

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Wheezing, coughing that doesn’t stop, a pale and sweaty face: clinically, severe asthma attacks look very similar from patient to patient. But biologically, not all severe asthma is the same—and a team of scientists has, for the first time, identified the key difference in people, a finding that has important implications for treatment.

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You’ve probably heard that the first two vaccines approved for battling COVID-19 in the United States use a relatively new approach—injections of simple packets containing mRNA, a genetic material that instructs our cells to make coronavirus spike proteins. But the technology for generating sufficient amounts of those mRNA packets dates back to the 1980s, when F. William Studier, then a senior biophysicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, developed a way to harness the molecular machinery of a very different virus.

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Sets of genes associated with resistance to immunotherapy in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer of the bladder have been identified and validated by researchers at Mount Sinai. In a study published in Clinical Cancer Research, the team uncovered gene signatures representing adaptive immunity and pro-tumorigenic inflammation that were responsible for sensitivity or resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors, drugs that help the body’s immune system recognize and attack cancerous cells.

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A dysfunctional immune system significantly contributes to the development of cancer. Several therapeutic strategies to activate the immune system to target cancer cells have been approved to treat different types of cancer, including melanoma.

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Coping with childhood anxiety amid returning to the classroom; new global tracker measures pandemic's impact on education worldwide; Covid-19 drives innovation and evolution in patient care...

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Nursing mothers who receive a COVID-19 vaccine may pass protective antibodies to their babies through breast milk for at least 80 days following vaccination, suggests new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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Researchers at the Bloomberg Kimmel Institute for Caner Immunotherapy at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have developed DeepTCR, a software package that employs deep-learning algorithms to analyze T-cell receptor (TCR) sequencing data. T-cell receptors are found on the surface of immune T cells. These receptors bind to certain antigens, or proteins, found on abnormal cells, such as cancer cells and cells infected with a virus or bacteria, to guide the T cells to attack and destroy the affected cells.

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Eczema, or atopic dermatitis (AD), is sometimes called "the itch that rashes." Often, the itch begins before the rash appears, and, in many cases, the itchiness of the skin condition never really goes away.

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Women who were vaccinated for COVID-19 earlier in their third trimester had a higher likelihood of passing protective antibodies to their newborn babies than women who received their vaccination closer to delivery, a new study from Northwestern Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago has found.

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UC San Diego students will participate in nationwide clinical trial to assess if COVID-19 vaccination prevents infection and reduces risk of transmission.

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A research team led by Donny Hanjaya-Putra is building new lymphatic cord-like structures, which help restore normal behavior to dysfunctional lymphatic systems and allow the body to fight the disease.

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"SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV are highly similar genetically, generate a homologous repertoire of viral proteins, and use the same receptor to infect human cells.

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Researchers have mapped the distribution of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in deceased patients with the disease, and shed new light on how viral load relates to tissue damage.

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New immunotherapy approach to treating cancer patients with COVID-19 aims to reduce risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms by reinvigorating patients' cellular immune responses

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A new study out of the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in humans, chimpanzees, rhesus macaques and baboons has found key differences in early gene expression in response to pathogen exposure, highlighting the importance of choosing the right animal model for the right questions.

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Picture viral RNA as a single component that you can break into one million pieces. Now imagine reassembling those pieces together, literally like a jigsaw puzzle. If there’s a chipped corner or if a piece won’t fit snugly as it should, consider that a virus mutation or variant. That’s genomic sequencing, in a nutshell, when it comes to identifying variants of COVID-19, according to Peter Stoilov, associate professor of biochemistry at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.

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Humans are born with tens of thousands of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that collectively ensure lifelong production of blood and immune cells that protect us from infections.

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Researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago have developed a new therapeutic vaccine that uses a patient’s own tumor cells to train their immune system to find and kill cancer.

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The eighth annual Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine has been jointly awarded to Warren J. Leonard, MD, NHLBI, NIH Distinguished Investigator, and John J. O’Shea, MD, Scientific Director, NIAMS, NIH, for their respective contributions to the field of immunology, from fundamental discovery to therapeutic impact.

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Wistar is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard M. Horowitz as chair of its Board of Trustees.

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Igor Stagljar made his career building molecular tools to combat cancer. But when the pandemic hit last March, he aimed his expertise at a new adversary, SARS-CoV-2.