Results from a study led by Joan Seoane, Director of Preclinical and Translational Research co-program at VHIO and ICREA Professor, show that immune cells accessing cerebrospinal fluid faithfully recapitulate the characteristics of cells identified in brain metastasis, and could therefore constitute novel biomarkers of response to immune-based therapies. Immune checkpoint inhibitors including anti-PD1, anti-PD-L1, and […]
Medical researchers have long understood that a pregnant mother’s diet has a profound impact on her developing fetus’s immune system and that babies—especially those born prematurely—who are fed breast milk have a more robust ability to fight disease, suggesting that even after childbirth, a mother’s diet matters. However, the biological mechanisms underlying these connections have […]
Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) reveal that newly formed embryos clear dying cells to maximize their chances of survival. It is the earliest display of an innate immune response found in vertebrate animals to date. The findings, which are published today in the journal Nature, may aid future efforts to understand why […]
Researchers from the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have found that immune responses to insulin could help identify individuals most at risk for developing Type 1 diabetes. The study, out recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, measured immune responses from individuals genetically […]
The novel coronavirus has developed a number of worrisome mutations, resulting in multiple new variants popping up around the world. Now, a new study sheds light on how the virus mutates so easily and why these mutations help it “escape” the body’s immune response. The study researchers found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, […]
A team of scientists has shown that a key type of immune cell “self-renews” in humans. It is an unexpected discovery, as it was previously thought this specific type of “senescent” killer immune cell had reached “end-stage” and would die following one more stint at helping people fight off—or live with—certain infections. It suggests these […]
Sebastian Lobentanzer of Goethe University, Frankfurt, has been studying small RNA dynamics in various contexts using bioinformatic methods. Recently, small RNAs have become more and more interesting for researchers, primarily because of their extensive regulatory functions. To examine these functions in stroke, Lobentanzer joined Katarzyna Winek of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, to study microRNAs and tRNA […]
The novel coronavirus outbreak is a global pandemic that has spread to more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Currently, countries and territories are fighting the spread of the disease using social distancing such as quarantine, testing or isolation which can be regarded as immunization. Given the important role that networks play in […]
New research into the HIV-1 virus has shed light on an important factor in the evolution of viruses, which is likely also to affect SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which causes COVID-19). This new insight could have important implications for vaccine development. Differences in the cellular immune system in different human populations are now known to influence […]
Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have studied the role of the immune response in the development of glaucoma in mice. They showed that inflammatory processes are associated with the pathogenesis of the disease and that the extracellular matrix molecule tenascin-C plays a key role as a modulator of the immune response. Glaucoma is a common […]
