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Enlarge Image Early exposure. The Shuar people of the Amazon do not suffer from a chronic inflammatory response. Credit: Courtesy of the Shuar Health and Life History Project From an early age, the indigenous Shuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon are exposed to an army of parasites, viruses, and other microbes. But if children survive to adulthood—no guarantee, given that they're three times more likely to die before the age of 5 than children in the United States and Canada—they seem to end up with more efficient immune systems than people living in industrialized nations. That's the conclusion of...

Enlarge Image Vulnerable. A new type of drug blocks a tumor cell's shield (left) against T cells (knights) so that they can attack. Credit: Ryan Snook, www.ryansnook.com A type of drug that helps the body's immune system attack tumors is showing promise. In early clinical trials involving several hundred patients with various kinds of advanced cancer, up to one-quarter of those who received the treatment saw their tumors shrink, and some are still alive more than a year later. The results are the latest good news for so-called immunotherapy treatments that work by overcoming a tumor's ability to evade...

Enlarge Image Survivor. When mice with human tumors received doses of anti-CD47, which sets the immune system against tumor cells, the cancers shrank and disappeared. Credit: Fotosearch A single drug can shrink or cure human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver, and prostate tumors that have been transplanted into mice, researchers have found. The treatment, an antibody that blocks a "do not eat" signal normally displayed on tumor cells, coaxes the immune system to destroy the cancer cells. A decade ago, biologist Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, discovered that leukemia cells...

Cattle infected with a common parasite could be spreading TB across Britain undetected. Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) could be spreading across Britain because the most widely used test for the disease is ineffective when cattle are infected with a common liver parasite. The liver fluke Fasciola hepatica was already known to affect the standard skin test for bTB, but it was unclear whether the fluke stopped the disease developing or merely hid the symptoms. A study published today in Nature Communications suggests that the latter is more likely, and that the effect is significant. It estimates that around a third of...

Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have found a new therapeutic target to combat inflammation. The research, published in the journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, revealed tiny organelles called primary cilia are important for regulating inflammation. The findings could lead to potential therapies for millions of people who suffer from arthritis. Dr Martin Knight who led the research at Queen Mary's School of Engineering and Materials Science said: "Although primary cilia were discovered more than a century ago, we're only beginning to realise the importance they play in different diseases and conditions, and the potential therapeutic benefits that...

Amish children raised on rural farms in northern Indiana suffer from asthma and allergies less often even than Swiss farm kids, a group known to be relatively free from allergies, according to a new study. "The rates are very, very low," said Dr. Mark Holbreich, the study's lead author. "So there's something that we feel is even more protective in the Amish" than in European farming communities. What it is about growing up on farms -- and Amish farms in particular -- that seems to prevent allergies remains unclear. Researchers have long observed the so-called "farm effect" -- the low...

Macrophages play a key role in the immune response, protecting organisms against infection and regulating the development of inflammation in tissue. Macrophages differ depending on where they are located and which tasks they perform. A scientist at TUM has been investigating whether these different types of cells have the same origin – and has come up with some surprising results. His findings reveal that there are two distinct macrophage cell lines that continue into adult life and that these two lineages have different origins. The research was recently published in Science magazine. The organs of vertebrates, including of course humans...

Once considered unimportant "junk DNA," scientists have learned that non-coding RNA (ncRNA) -- RNA molecules that do not translate into proteins -- play a crucial role in cellular function. Mutations in ncRNA are associated with a number of conditions, such as cancer, autism, and Alzheimer's disease. Now, through the use of "deep sequencing," a technology used to sequence the genetic materials of the human genome, Dr. Noam Shomron of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine has discovered that when infected with a virus, ncRNA gives off biological signals that indicate the presence of an infectious agent, known as a...

Enlarge Image Looking for trouble. Cytotoxic T cells like this one might react to distress signals released by dying or damaged body cells. Credit: Eye of Science/Photo Researchers Inc. In 1994, Polly Matzinger came up with a controversial idea. The immunologist at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases proposed that alarm signals released from injured and dying cells can kick our immune system into high gear even when no microbial threat is evident. Many of Matzinger's colleagues ridiculed her "danger hypothesis," and it has remained divisive ever since. But a new study lends strong support to the...

Ruslan M. Medzhitov loves scientific puzzles. And this penchant has led him to tackle some of the big questions of modern biology. At Yale University, where he is a professor of immunology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, Dr. Medzhitov, 45, helped make key discoveries in the workings of vertebrates’ immune systems. We spoke about them at his home in Guilford, Conn.; again in New York City; and finally by telephone. An edited and condensed version of the sessions follows. Let’s talk about the paper by the immunologist Charles A. Janeway Jr. that changed your life. When did you...

Enlarge Image Still killing. Even with modern medical care, about a quarter of sepsis patients die. Credit: iStockphoto Sepsis isn't just one of those old-time diseases that people used to die from before the discovery of antibiotics. It's still a major killer. Now, a new study shows that immune cells known as B cells forestall sepsis in mice, a discovery that may help researchers devise better treatments for the illness. Each year, up to 1 million people in the United States fall victim to sepsis, a runaway infection coupled with bodywide inflammation. Despite antibiotics and other treatments, about 25% of...

Killer T-cells in the human body which help protect us from disease can inadvertently destroy cells that produce insulin, new research has uncovered. The study provides the first evidence of this mechanism in action and could offer new understanding of the cause of Type 1 diabetes. Professor Andy Sewell, an expert in human T-cells from Cardiff University's School of Medicine worked alongside diabetes experts from King's College London to better understand the role of T-cells in the development of Type 1 diabetes. The team isolated a T-cell from a patient with Type 1 diabetes to view a unique molecular interaction...

Three years ago, Kristie Salerno Kent, a singer-songwriter, was standing in a security line at the airport on her way home from a gig when her legs went numb. “From the waist down, it felt as though I was trying to walk through a bowl of oatmeal,” said the 38-year-old musician, who has multiple sclerosis... --snip-- The medication she was taking to prevent these attacks was losing its effect, so her doctor suggested she switch to Tysabri, one of the newer, more potent “disease-modifying drugs,” which reduce the severity and frequency of relapses. She also began taking Ampyra, which early...

It is vital that the body's own immune system does not overreact. If its key players, the helper T cells, get out of control, this can lead to autoimmune diseases or allergies. An immune system overreaction against infectious agents may even directly damage organs and tissues. Immune cells called regulatory T cells ("Tregs") ensure that immune responses take place in a coordinated manner: They downregulate the dividing activity of helper T cells and reduce their production of immune mediators. "This happens through direct contact between regulatory cell and helper cell," says Prof. Peter Krammer of DKFZ. "But we didn't know...

Enlarge Image Blood tied. The malaria parasite P. falciparum, which is carried by the Anopheles mosquito (pictured in their larval stage), can't infect red blood cells without a particular protein. Credit: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute The most dangerous malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is an unusually versatile bug. The single-celled safecracker carries a wide collection of protein "keys" that it can use to jimmy receptor "locks" on the surface of red blood cells, tricking the cells into letting it in. Block one of these entry points with a drug, and the parasite just uses a different key. But now, researchers...

Allergy research If infants encounter a wide range of bacteria they are less at risk of developing allergic disease later in life. This is the conclusion of research from the University of Copenhagen, which suggests completely new factors in many modern lifestyle diseases.Oversensitivity diseases, or allergies, now affect 25 per cent of the population of Denmark. The figure has been on the increase in recent decades and now researchers at the Dansk BørneAstma Center [COPSAC, Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood], University of Copenhagen, are at last able to partly explain the reasons. A variety of bacteria offers protection"In...

'Good bugs' look promising as anti-inflammatory agent for patients with ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, chronic fatigue syndromeWashington, DC -- In four different studies presented at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 76th Annual Scientific meeting in Washington, DC, researchers explored the effectiveness of probiotics for antibiotic-associated diarrhea; as an anti-inflammatory agent for patients with ulcerative colitis, psoriasis and chronic fatigue syndrome; and for people with abdominal discomfort and bloating who have not been diagnosed with a functional bowel disorder, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). These four studies will be featured during an ACG press briefing on Tuesday, November 1, 2011...

Sci. Signal., 25 October 2011 Vol. 4, Issue 196, p. eg9 [DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.2002601] EDITORIAL GUIDES Focus Issue: Recruiting Players for a Game of ERK Nancy R. Gough1* 1 Editor of Science Signaling, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20005, USA. Abstract: The extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) pathway is one of the superfamily of mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. Signals transmitted by this kinase cascade activate a pair of related proteins, ERK1 and ERK2. Research published in Science Signaling shows that, despite the wealth of knowledge about this pathway, previously unknown functions continue to...

As anyone familiar with the phrase 'man-flu' will know women consider themselves to be the more robust side of the species when it comes to health and illness. Now new research, published in BioEssays, seems to support the idea. The research focuses on the role of MicroRNAs encoded on the X chromosome to explain why women have stronger immune systems to men and are less likely to develop cancer. The research, led by Dr Claude Libert from Ghent University in Belgium, focused on MicroRNA, tiny strains of ribonucleic acid which alongside DNA and proteins, make up the three major macromolecules...

Enlarge Image FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Beutler, Hoffmann and Steinman Credit: Mosimann for Balzan, Rockefeller University Press Three scientists who studied how the immune system kicks into action share this year's Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. One-half of the $1.45 million award is shared by Bruce Beutler of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and Jules Hoffmann of the University of Strasbourg in France, who unraveled crucial details of how the innate immune system—the broad, first-line defense against microbial pathogens—is activated. The other half goes to Ralph Steinman of Rockefeller University in New York City, for...