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A receptor on infection-fighting cells may be a novel target for drugs that fight autoimmune disease. TURNING ON ITSELFAfter mice were made allergic to a protein, researchers injected the same protein into mouse lungs to cause a disease that mimics asthma. The lung tissue of normal mice (left) shows more severe inflammation than that of mice lacking the gene for the DR3 receptor (right). Because DR3 plays a crucial role in immune cells attacking healthy tissue, the receptor may be a target for drugs that treat autoimmune disorders like asthma or multiple sclerosis.Siegel, Françoise Meylan In people with autoimmune diseases...

La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI) scientists have discovered one for the textbooks. Their finding, reported June 13 in the scientific journal Immunity, illuminates a new, previously unknown mechanism in how the body fights a virus. The finding runs counter to traditional scientific understanding of this process and will provide scientists a more effective method for developing vaccines. "Our research grew from the question, "why do you get good antibody responses to some parts of (virus) pathogens and poor responses to other parts?" said LIAI scientist Shane Crotty, Ph.D., the lead researcher on the paper, "Selective CD4 T...

For decades, scientists have known that they can make vaccines much more efficacious by adding aluminum compounds, but they never knew why. Now, a study reveals how, on a molecular level, these helpers spur the production of antibodies. The finding may help researchers develop better vaccines. Many vaccines contain adjuvants, nonspecific agents that help jolt the immune system into action. "Alum," a term referring broadly to aluminum hydroxide and several aluminum salts, has this effect, as was accidentally discovered in the 1920s. It has been widely used in human vaccines since the 1950s, and it's still the only adjuvant allowed...

A new type of treatment that trains immune system cells to better recognize the AIDS virus may help control the deadly and incurable infection, Australian researchers reported on Friday. Tests on monkeys infected with a similar virus shows the treatment controlled the infection, although it does not cure it, and tests are already planned in people. The treatment is called OPAL, for Overlapping Peptide-pulsed Autologous Cells, and would be categorized as an immunotherapy technique, or a so-called therapeutic vaccine, Stephen Kent of the University of Melbourne and colleagues said. Writing in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens, they...

Broccoli May Help Boost Aging Immune SystemBroccoli. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Los Angeles)ScienceDaily (Mar. 10, 2008) — Eat your broccoli! That's the advice from UCLA researchers who have found that a chemical in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables may hold a key to restoring the body's immunity, which declines as we age. Published in the online edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the study findings show that sulforaphane, a chemical in broccoli, switches on a set of antioxidant genes and enzymes in specific immune cells, which then combat the injurious effects of molecules...

Talk about a low-down, dirty trick. New research reveals that bacteria deploy duplicates of human proteins to jam our body's early warning system. The results might lead to improved treatments for bacterial infections and for diseases such as arthritis that are caused by an overactive immune system. Any good military defense employs radar, and our immune system is no exception. Immune cells known as macrophages and dendritic cells carry so-called Toll-like receptors, which raise the alarm if they detect bits of bacterial membrane or other telltale signs of microbial invasion. A portion of the Toll-like receptor called the TIR domain...

Fibres may be more important than viral load in determining transmission rates. A component found in semen can enhance HIV transmission by as much as 100,000-fold, researchers have found. The results, if verified in a clinical setting, could identify a new way to help prevent the spread of the disease. "I think this is tremendous," says Christopher Pilcher, an HIV researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not affiliated with the study. "It raises a lot of really fundamental questions about how HIV is transmitted." Over 80% of HIV infections are acquired through sexual intercourse, primarily via...

Canadian Press TORONTO — Scientists at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children say they've taken a step forward in stem-cell transplant research. They've discovered a gene with properties that allow for successful transfer of stem cells from human bone marrow into mice. They also identified the type of cell that expresses the gene (called SIRPalpha) and is responsible for either destroying or supporting growth of human blood stem cells. The researchers hope further studies will lead to the development of a therapy so more children with blood diseases can receive bone marrow transplantation. It may also help provide a genetic test...

Some people who contract HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, maintain low amounts of the virus in their bodies for years. These long-term nonprogressors—so called because a decade or more can pass before they develop full-blown AIDS—have attracted great attention from researchers. Now, using powerful, whole-genome scans, researchers have identified three genetic variations that partially explain why some HIV-infected people develop AIDS quickly while others keep it at bay. "This is a good head start to unraveling the genetic basis of good control of viral load," says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in...

Via the placenta, a newborn baby receives a 6-month supply of antibodies from its mother, arming it against a world chock-full of allergy-causing particles and viruses. But it turns out that the baby may have been preparing its immune system for battle well before birth. New research indicates that developing fetuses are able to mount their own specific immune response to flu vaccines received by their mother. The findings could help end a debate over just how complex a fetus's immune system is. A fetus contains many kinds of immune cells, yet most immunologists believe those cells are too immature...

Milk Therapy Julie J. Rehmeyer Catharina Svanborg thought that she already knew how remarkable breast milk is. The immunologist had logged hundreds of lab hours documenting ways in which human milk helps babies fight infections. But when the group decided to use cancerous lung cells to avoid the variability shown by normal cells in laboratory tests, Svanborg and her team at Lund University in Sweden were in for a surprise. They applied breast milk to the cancerous lung cells, and all the cells died. Breast milk killed cancer cells. GOAT GOODS. A transgenic goat named Artemis produces in her milk...

People who lived during the 1918 influenza epidemic may hold secrets in their blood that could help fight a future pandemic, but finding them now is a race against time. People who were toddlers at the end of World War I -- when the epidemic swept the globe and killed 50 million -- are in their 90s now. Nearly a lifetime after the notorious outbreak, researchers are hoping those who lived through it will come forward and donate a vial of blood, which then will be analyzed for antibodies to the virus. In particular, a New Jersey researcher is seeking...

Scientists have discovered how a common crop pest evades detection. When the invader's cover is blown, the bacterium masks itself by ditching its genetic identification, setting the stage for a quiet and deadly invasion. Commonly known as Halo blight, Pseudomonas syringae pv. Phaseolicola infects bean crops. Leaves develop small, water-soaked spots outlined by a yellow halo. As the plants fight back, the tissue around the infection dies, preventing further spread of the blight. But this strategy often fails, and as the bacteria move from leaf to leaf, they usually grow more virulent. In some cases, a single contaminated bean seed...

Tampa, FL (Nov. 12, 2005) -- An experimental treatment that spares disability from acute stroke may be delivered much later than the current three-hour treatment standard – a potential advance needed to benefit more stroke victims. Researchers at the University of South Florida found that human umbilical cord blood cells administered to rats two days following a stroke greatly curbed the brain's inflammatory response, reducing the size of the stroke and resulting in greatly improved recovery. The rats' inflammatory response to injury from stroke peaked 48 hours after the brain attack, which was when intravenous delivery of the cells appeared...

IN a world first, Melbourne scientists have successfully grown an organ from stem cells. A team from Monash Medical School grew a functioning thymus, a small organ that is critical to the immune system. Human trials could begin within two years. Stem cells are the body's building blocks and have unlimited capacity to grow and replace all the cells within a particular tissue or organ. "When I realised what we had finally done after 15 years of research, I went weak at the knees," Professor Richard Boyd said. He said understanding the thymus, located near the heart, was the...