News tagged with immune defences


Preventing blood poisoning

Peptide molecules derived from the body's natural immune system can help boost the body's defence against life-threatening blood poisoning, joint University research has uncovered.

Medical research created May 17, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Low vitamin D levels a risk factor for pneumonia

A University of Eastern Finland study showed that low serum vitamin D levels are a risk factor for pneumonia. The risk of contracting pneumonia was more than 2.5 times greater in subjects with the lowest vitamin D levels ...

Health created Apr 30, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

New HIV findings reveal genetic double-edged sword

A major international research study involving Murdoch University has found that individuals born with high numbers of a receptor known as HLA-C on their cells can naturally inhibit HIV.

HIV & AIDS created Apr 05, 2013 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Tumors deliberately create conditions that inhibit body's best immune response

New research in the Journal of Clinical Investigation reveals that tumours in melanoma patients deliberately create conditions that knock out the body's 'premier' immune defence and instead attract a weaker immune respon ...

Cancer created Mar 01, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cancer drug a possible treatment for multiple sclerosis

(Medical Xpress)—A drug that is currently used for cancer can relieve and slow down the progression of the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS) in rats, according to a new study published in PLOS ONE. The discovery, which ...

Medical research created Feb 21, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Genetically engineered virus kills liver cancer

A genetically-engineered virus tested in 30 terminally-ill liver cancer patients significantly prolonged their lives, killing tumours and inhibiting the growth of new ones, scientists reported on Sunday.

Cancer created Feb 10, 2013 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (44) | comments 12

Vitamin D can help infection-prone patients avoid respiratory tract infection

Treating infection-prone patients over a 12-month period with high doses of vitamin D reduces their risk of developing respiratory tract infection – and consequently their antibiotic requirement. This according to a new ...

Health created Dec 13, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Improving chemotherapy effectiveness by acting on the immune system

An Inserm team in Dijon directed by François Ghiringhelli is to publish an article this week in the Nature Medicine review. The article suggests that two chemotherapy drugs frequently used to treat digestive and breast cancers ...

Immunology created Dec 04, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Salmonella research improves understanding of immune defence

Australian researchers have discovered that vitamin B metabolites produced by Salmonella bacteria can activate the immune system, a finding that could lead to new treatments for gut and lung diseases.

Immunology created Nov 29, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

'Missing link' discovered in the defense mechanism of the tuberculosis pathogen

Flemish biologists lead by Joris Messens (VIB / Vrije Universiteit Brussel) have discovered that Mycobacterium tuberculosis – the bacterium that causes tuberculosis – has an ingenious defence mechanism against oxygen ...

Medical research created Nov 14, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Researchers discover immune pathway

Researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, have now discovered an important mechanism behind one of our most fundamental lines of immune function. The discovery has been published in the esteemed scientific journal, The ...

Immunology created Nov 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Immunobiological functioning of toll-receptors revealed

The puzzle about the ancestral function of toll-receptors has been solved. For more than 25 years, researchers from medicine and biology have been studying toll-receptors, revealing functions in immune defence ...

Medical research created Nov 01, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers seek to understand brain's immune response to metastasized cancer

Brain metastases are common secondary complications of other types of cancer, particularly lung, breast and skin cancer. The body's own immune response in the brain is rendered powerless in the fight against ...

Cancer created Sep 25, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers show long-term consequences of chronic virus infection

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 ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Aug 16, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Vaccine trial for Alzheimer's clears key hurdle

A vaccine which revives a promising but long-abandoned path to thwart Alzheimer's disease has cleared a key safety hurdle in human trials, researchers say.

Alzheimer's disease & dementia created Jun 07, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0