Entries tagged as Immunology

Second Dose Of Gene Therapy For Inherited Blindness Proves Safe In Animal Studies

On March 5, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Immunology, Public Health / No Comments

Gene therapy for a severe inherited blindness, which produced dramatic improvements last year in 12 children and young adults who received the treatment in a clinical trial, has cleared another hurdle. The same research team that conducted the human trial now reports that a study in animals has shown that a second injection of genes into the opposite, previously untreated eye is safe and effective, with no signs of interference from unwanted immune reactions following the earlier injection. (read the full story)

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Rapamycin Rescues Learning And Memory In An Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Model

On February 26, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Immunology / 1 Comment

Rapamycin, a drug that keeps the immune system from attacking transplanted organs, may have another exciting use: fighting Alzheimer’s disease. Rapamycin rescued learning and memory deficits in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s, a team from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio reported Tuesday (Feb. 23). The study, in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, offers the first evidence that the drug is able to reverse Alzheimer’s-like deficits in an animal model, said the senior author, Salvatore Oddo, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Physiology of the UT Health Science Center San Antonio. (continue reading)

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“Good” Bacteria Keep Immune System Primed To Fight Future Infections

On February 26, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Immunology / No Comments

Scientists have long pondered the seeming contradiction that taking broad-spectrum antibiotics over a long period of time can lead to severe secondary bacterial infections. Now researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine may have figured out why. The investigators show that “good” bacteria in the gut keep the immune system primed to more effectively fight infection from invading pathogenic bacteria. Altering the intricate dynamic between resident and foreign bacteria – via antibiotics, for example – compromises an animal’s immune response, specifically, the function of white blood cells called neutrophils. (continue reading)

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First Evidence That Native Dendritic Cells Of The Brain Can Muster An Immune Response

On February 24, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Immunology, Neuroscience / No Comments

The human brain is a delicate organ, robustly defended. A thick skull shields it from any direct exposure to the outside world, and the blood-brain barrier keeps out any foreign substances that are circulating within. New research shows that the brain may have its own specialized immune defenses, too. In 2008, researchers at Rockefeller University first identified a population of dendritic cells, the sentinels of the immune system, that was native to the brain. (continue reading)

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Further Doubt Cast On A Virus Link To Chronic Fatigue

On February 18, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Immunology / No Comments

VirusResearchers investigating UK samples have found no association between the controversial xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Their study, published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Retrovirology, calls into question a potential link described late last year by an American research team. Check the end of this review for a link to download a PDF of the freely available original study. (continue reading)

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Rejuvenating An Old Immune System

On February 4, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Immunology / No Comments

Researchers from Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZI) are investigating the development of novel therapies to make the old immune system young again. By comparing the immune responses of both, young and old mice, to bacterial infection they found that the number of macrophages, one of the major cell populations involved in the elimination of infecting bacteria, decreases rapidly in aged mice. This decline in the number of fighters and the associated weakness of the immune defense may be responsible for the age-associated increase in susceptibility to infections. The HZI researchers have succeeded to enhance the resistance to an infection in aged mice by treating them with a macrophage-specific growth factor. This treatment increases the amount of macrophages in aged mice and improves their capacity to fight the infection. continue reading)

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