http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Stumped for years by a natural filter in the body that allows few substances, including life-saving drugs, to enter the brain through the bloodstream, physicians who treat neurological diseases may soon have a new pathway to the organ via a technique developed by a physicist and an immunologist working together at Florida International University's Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-fiu-pathway-brain-medicine.html Medical research Mon, 06 May 2013 18:26:42 EST news287083592 The tiny thymus teaches the immune system to ignore the teeming, foreign bacteria in the gut that helps you digest and absorb food, researchers say. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-thymus-immune-cells-vital-gut.html Immunology Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:04:49 EST news286455882 Scientists from the Max F. Perutz Laboratories (MFPL) of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna have provided insights into how much harm bacteria can cause to the lung of people having the flu. An infection with both the flu and bacteria can be a fatal combination. The results could prompt the development of alternative treatments for flu-related bacterial infections, to improve patient outcome and prevent permanent lung damage. The study is published in the renown journal Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-flu-bacteria-prognosis-potentially-fatal.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:55:06 EST news286196099 Once the initial episode of influenza has passed, the chronic effects tend to be overlooked. The results of a new study indicate that the cytokine interleukin-22 (IL-22) plays a critical role in normal lung repair following influenza infection. This study is published in the April 2013 issue of the American Journal of Pathology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-essential-role-il-lung-flu.html Medical research Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:07 EST news282138712 A study led by University of Massachusetts Medical School professor and immunologist Katherine Luzuriaga, MD, and Johns Hopkins Children's Center virologist Deborah Persaud, MD, highlights the long-term benefits of early antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiated in infants. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-early-antiretroviral-treatment-viral-reservoirs.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:00:02 EST news281624209 An international team of researchers has found that a once-a-month, high-dose injection of a commonly used asthma drug is highly effective in treating teens and adults chronically afflicted with hives and severe, itchy rash. The drug, omalizumab, was tested on 323 people at 55 medical centers for whom standard antihistamine therapy failed to quell their underlying, allergy-like reaction, known as chronic idiopathic urticaria or chronic spontaneous urticaria. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-asthma-drug-highly-effective-chronic.html Immunology Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:00:29 EST news280917558 A new study by NYU School of Medicine researchers suggests that an existing HIV drug called maraviroc could be a potential therapy for Staphylococcus aureus, a notorious and deadly pathogen linked to hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations each year. Their study is published online this week in Nature. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-drug-hiv-defuse-deadly-staph.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:20:01 EST news274723495 (Medical Xpress)—Patients suffering from the painful autoimmune disease, Sjogren's Syndrome, will soon be able to be properly diagnosed much earlier, thanks to the discovery of novel antibodies by researchers at the University at Buffalo and Immco Diagnostics, Inc. The breakthrough, described in a paper in the December issue of Clinical Immunology, will allow patients to be treated sooner when they are much more likely to benefit. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-discovery-early-diagnosis-sjogren-syndrome.html Immunology Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:45:22 EST news274603452 Natural killer cells, as part of the body´s immune system, can effectively fight cancer. Unfortunately, they quickly lose their aggressiveness and hence are unable to reject solid tumors. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center have now discovered a cocktail consisting of three different immune mediators that leaves NK killer cells active over a long period of time. In mice, cocktail-boosted NK cells let tumors shrink. The cocktail -was able to persistently activate human NK cells, too. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-cocktail-boosts-immune-cells-cancer.html Cancer Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:49:52 EST news274013382 To transport substances from the site of their production to their destination, the body needs a sophisticated transport and sorting system. Various receptors in and on the cells recognize certain molecules, pack them and ensure that they are transported to the right place. One of these receptors is Sortilin. It is present in the cells of the nervous system, the liver, and the immune system. Studies by Stefanie Herda and Dr. Armin Rehm (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch and Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin) and the immunologist Dr. Uta Höpken (MDC) have now shown that the receptor Sortilin plays an important role in the function of the immune system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-elucidate-pathway-immune-substances.html Immunology Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:00:10 EST news269775338 (Medical Xpress)—Until recently, medical researchers had little hope of experimentally manipulating naïve T cells to study their crucial roles in immune function, because they were largely impenetrable, says polymer scientist Gregory Tew: "So far off limits we could not readily get inside to investigate their workings." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-scores-advance-t-cells.html Medical research Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:47:45 EST news269178411 Researchers at the Georgia Health Sciences University Cancer Center have identified a gene that disrupts the inflammatory process implicated in liver cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-inflammation-cancers.html Cancer Wed, 22 Aug 2012 16:06:58 EST news264870392 The cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a member of the herpesvirus family. Although most people carry CMV for life, it hardly ever makes them sick. Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and from the USA have now unveiled long term consequences of the on-going presence of CMV: Later in life, more and more cells of the immune system concentrate on CMV, and as a result, the response against other viruses is weakened. These research results help to explain why the elderly are often more prone to infectious diseases than young people. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-long-term-consequences-chronic-virus-infection.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:00:07 EST news264345769 An organism's ability to make new antibodies and use them to optimize its own immune defenses is of central importance in the fight against pathogens. In the case of severe infections, the overall relative speed with which an immune response proceeds could mean the difference between life and death. An international team of scientists, among them systems immunologist Prof. Michael Meyer-Hermann of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) of Braunschweig, Germany, has now found that asymmetric division of antibody-producing B cells speeds up the body's immune defenses. Early on, one daughter cell starts making antibodies while the other works at refining its own antibodies. The researchers' findings are due to be published in the upcoming issue of the scientific journal, Cell Reports. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-lymph-node-roundabout-probe-optimized.html Immunology Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:24:49 EST news260112280 An inexpensive new medical sensor has the potential to simplify the diagnosis of diseases ranging from life-threatening immune deficiencies to the common cold, according to its inventors at the Stanford University School of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-immune-system-sensor-slash-disease.html Medical research Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:46:58 EST news250339606 Cells that die naturally generate a lot of internal debris that can trigger the immune system to attack the body, leading to diseases such as lupus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-natural-method-cellular-debris-lupus.html Immunology Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:40:01 EST news249280333 Brody Kennedy was a typical sixth-grader who loved to hang out with friends in Castaic, Calif., and play video games. A strep-throat infection in October caused him to miss a couple of days of school, but he was eager to rejoin his classmates, recalls his mother, Tracy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-childhood-disorder-bolsters-infection-link.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:20:02 EST news242912638 Mayo Clinic researchers have identified critical steps leading to myelin destruction in neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a debilitating neurological disease that is commonly misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis (MS). The findings could lead to better care for the thousands of patients around the world with NMO. The paper was published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-rresearch-diagnosis-potential-treatment-neuromyelitis.html Medical research Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:10:02 EST news242042549 (Medical Xpress) -- Northeastern researchers have played a key role in studying how antibodies that neutralize HIV function are structured, a further step in ongoing global efforts by scientists to develop a vaccine for the pandemic virus that causes AIDS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-neutralizing-hiv-function.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:39:26 EST news239524687 Mayo Clinic has received investigational new drug approval from the Food and Drug Administration for two new cancer vaccines that mobilize the body's defense mechanisms to destroy malignant cells. The vaccines are among the first aimed at preventing cancer recurrence. The approval clears the way for Phase I clinical trials with women treated for ovarian or breast cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-mayo-clinic-fda-ovarian-breast.html Cancer Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:46:24 EST news232807571 Cancer cells do not grow equally well everywhere in the body. Often, they first create the conditions in which they can grow. Many years ago researchers discovered that solid tumors attract blood vessels to ensure their supply of nutrients by secreting specific factors. Now the immunologist Dr. Uta Höpken (Tumor and Immunogenetics Research Group at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch in the Helmholtz Association) and the hematologist Dr. Armin Rehm (Charité – Virchow-Klinikum, Department of Hematology, Oncology and Tumor Immunology, MDC) have shown for the first time that specific forms of lymphoma also create their own survival niche. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-survival-niche-cancer-cells.html Cancer Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:03:22 EST news226573393