Tag: immune

Our researchers have revealed the identities of new subsets of immune cells at the frontline of our body’s defenses against infection. The research team’s discovery expands the understanding of immune cells called granulocytes – immune cells that can trigger inflammation and engulf microbes to slow an infection’s progress. As well as protecting against infection, granulocytes

Immune cells that normally rush in to protect the eyes from infection might actually be disrupting moisturizing glands and causing dry eye, a disease that afflicts more than 30 million people in the United States. This finding from a research team led by Duke Eye Center could lead to more effective therapies for dry eyes

To diagnose rheumatoid arthritis, antibodies to the amino acid citrulline are commonly measured. A new study from Uppsala University shows that a broad mix of different antibodies in the joints is the dominant factor that can be associated with severe inflammation and joint damage. These findings, published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, may eventually

Malaria is one of the most infectious diseases worldwide. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, and from the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada, have studied how the human immune system combats malaria infections. In this study, the researchers discovered a previously unnoticed characteristic of antibodies against the

Women are more prone to the development of autoimmune diseases. The female hormone estrogen is likely to affect the immune system. A team of scientists from Turku Center for Biotechnology and University of Georgia reported new findings related to the involvement of estrogen hormone receptor in autoimmune diseases. The incidence of autoimmune diseases such as

Like exposing a crime boss whose authority has gone undetected, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified a hidden driver that influences production of the T cells that fight cancer and infections. The study appears today as an advance online publication in the journal Nature. The hidden drivers are kinases (enzymes) Mst1 and Mst2.

Our immune system’s arsenal of defenses usually protects us from cancer. But sometimes, cancer cells overwhelm or evade this elaborate defense system. In the lab of biochemist and immunologist Christoph Rader, Ph.D., associate professor at The Scripps Research Institute in Florida, scientists have engineered a new type of anti-cancer antibody, one intended to enhance nature’s

A new study on mice offers insights into why some people’s hair may turn gray in response to a serious illness or chronic stress. Publishing May 3 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Alabama, Birmingham have discovered a connection between the genes that

About a decade ago, evolutionary psychologists suggested that humans have evolved a first line of defense against disease: a behavioural immune system (BIS). This system is thought to be unconsciously activated, to varying degrees, when an individual perceives, rightly or wrongly, that there is a threat of disease. Although we cannot see microorganisms with our

Preterm labor, a common pregnancy complication, has long been a mystery to scientists. But a new study from UC San Francisco shows it may sometimes happen when the fetal immune system “wakes up” too early and begins to reject the mother, causing the uterus to start contracting. The researchers think the fetal immune system becomes