https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A study out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has unveiled new insights into the inflammatory processes behind periodontitis, a common and debilitating gum disease. Research conducted by UNC Adams School of Dentistry's Julie Marchesan, DDS, Ph.D., and UNC School of Medicine's Jenny Y. Ting, Ph.D., found that a part of the immune system called the inflammasome plays a key role in disease development, and that blocking this system prevents bone resorption only in males. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-inflammasome-male-specific-bone-loss.html Fri, 14 Nov 2025 13:50:02 EST news682348346 In a recent study published in Science Advances, researchers led by Prof. Li Xinjian from the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have uncovered a novel immunoregulatory function of isocyanic acid (ICA), a reactive metabolite synthesized by the enzyme laccase domain containing 1 (LACC1). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-isocyanic-acid-anti-inflammatory-metabolite.html Thu, 13 Mar 2025 07:44:03 EDT news661070641 A group of immune proteins called the inflammasome can help prevent blood stem cells from becoming malignant by removing certain receptors from their surfaces and blocking cancer gene activity, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-immune-complex-receptors-stem-cells.html Wed, 15 Jan 2025 15:15:05 EST news656176501 New research from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences has explained how the body's internal clock influences the inflammatory process of the immune system. The findings describe how immune cells, called macrophages, work differently at various times of the day and could pave the way for time-targeted treatments for inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-reveals-body-clock-inflammation.html Tue, 17 Dec 2024 10:22:43 EST news653653358 Periodontal disease, which affects the gums and tissues that surround the teeth, is one of the most prevalent dental conditions worldwide. Most often caused by the formation and accumulation of bacterial biofilm around the teeth, periodontal disease can ultimately lead to tooth loss if left unattended. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-oral-bacteria-aggravate-rheumatoid-arthritis.html Thu, 05 Sep 2024 13:26:03 EDT news644761561 According to an article published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, severe COVID-19 patients can be divided into two distinct groups: those with a high viral load and relatively little inflammation, and those who continue to suffer from inflammatory complications even after the virus has been completely eliminated. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-severe-covid-involve-exacerbated-lung.html Tue, 03 Sep 2024 11:14:03 EDT news644580841 Autoimmune diseases are among the most puzzling because turncoat constituents of the body wage a constant state of war. Sometimes the underlying cause of an autoimmune condition is so obscure—hidden within chemical miscues of the body—that a long investigatory search must be mounted to sleuth out a cause. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-infamous-inflammasome-rogue-protein-complex.html Fri, 29 Mar 2024 14:20:01 EDT news630938045 University of Queensland researchers have discovered how the "on-switch" for the body's inflammation machinery can get stuck and cause rare genetic inflammatory diseases. Professor Kate Schroder and her team at UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience have been studying the NLRP3 inflammasome, a protein complex that drives inflammation. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-inflammasome-autoinflammatory-disease-treatment.html Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:06:17 EDT news630057975 Cambridge scientists may have discovered a new way that fasting helps reduce inflammation, a potentially damaging side-effect of the body's immune system that underlies a number of chronic diseases. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01-scientists-fasting-inflammation.html Tue, 30 Jan 2024 15:17:05 EST news625850222 A new research paper was published in Aging, titled, "Contribution of membrane raft redox signaling to visfatin-induced inflammasome activation and podocyte injury." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12-membrane-raft-redox-contributes-visfatin-induced.html Tue, 05 Dec 2023 17:10:07 EST news621018601 A team of researchers, affiliated with UNIST have unraveled the molecular mechanisms behind the activation of multiple inflammasomes and their role in inducing inflammatory cell death. This discovery sheds light on the connection between innate immune sensors and provides valuable insights into the functions of inflammasomes in innate immunity and inflammasome biology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-uncovers-molecular-interactions-multiple-inflammasome.html Thu, 30 Nov 2023 10:11:03 EST news620561461 A team led by scientists from the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) has unearthed the possible target for treating the debilitating skin disease hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), which is a painful, chronic, inflammatory skin condition that can last decades. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-scientists-unearth-potential-debilitating-skin.html Tue, 26 Sep 2023 09:30:01 EDT news614938896 A new class of anti-inflammatory drug is opening a world of possibilities for treating everything from neurological diseases to cancers. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07-dual-nlrp1-nlrp3-inflammasome-inhibitor.html Thu, 06 Jul 2023 13:43:33 EDT news607869810 A study led by Daniel Jane-Wit, MD, Ph.D., a Yale School of Medicine associate professor of medicine (cardiology) and of immunobiology, could revolutionize our understanding of immune signaling. The study, published May 24 in Nature Communications, reveals the existence of a previously unknown signaling complex, referred to as ZFYVE21-Rubicon-RNF34 (ZRR), which plays a pivotal role in promoting inflammasome activity within endosomes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-uncover-immune-complex.html Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:48:26 EDT news605976503 A new study by Prof. Eran Elinav's lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science got an unexpected boost from the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. In the wake of this accord, Elinav was invited to a scientific conference in Dubai. On his way to the sessions, he shared a taxi with a German immunologist, Prof. Eicke Latz, and learned that unbeknownst to one another, they had been working on the same topic. "Professor Latz told me about an amazing protein complex he was studying, and I told him that my lab was studying the exact same complex," Elinav recalls. "We began to exchange ideas in a way that helped both sides fill in the missing pieces." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05-protein-complex-intestinal-autoinflammation.html Mon, 22 May 2023 08:33:04 EDT news603963181 Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are a type of targeted cancer medicine that can attack specific types of cancer cells and prevent them from multiplying. Although these inhibitors, called TKIs, can be very useful in fighting certain cancers, they also cause serious inflammatory side effects that limit their use. A Japanese research team has discovered the underlying mechanism that causes this inflammation. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03-team-tki-cancer-drugs-inflammatory.html Fri, 17 Mar 2023 12:15:44 EDT news598274055 An article published in Science Advances suggests that a type of cancer treatment known as immune checkpoint blockade may be beneficial in certain cases of severe COVID-19. The creators of this therapy, which can successfully activate the immune system to fight cancer, won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10-cancer-therapy-potential-severe-covid-.html Thu, 27 Oct 2022 12:32:03 EDT news586092721 Experiments involving animals and human cells conducted at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil suggest that niclosamide, an anthelmintic widely used against tapeworms, effectively inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication as well as the exacerbated inflammatory response that leads to death in many patients with severe COVID-19. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10-pre-clinical-trials-drug-potential-combat.html Fri, 21 Oct 2022 11:39:04 EDT news585571141 Dietary salt increases blood pressure in some people, putting them at higher risk for cardiovascular disease and death. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08-salt-blood-pressure.html Thu, 18 Aug 2022 16:32:03 EDT news580059121 Northwestern Medicine investigators recently discovered that the mitochondrial respiratory chain—a series of protein complexes essential for a cellular respiration and energy production—is necessary for the activation of another protein complex linked to inflammation and the progression of chronic diseases, according to a study published in Nature Immunology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-mitochondrial-respiratory-chain-sustains-inflammation.html Fri, 13 May 2022 10:14:44 EDT news571655681 Yale researchers have identified a particular immune response pathway that leads to severe illness and death in people infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-immune-culprit-severe-covid-cases-1.html Thu, 28 Apr 2022 17:01:54 EDT news570384025 Yale researchers have identified a particular immune response pathway that leads to severe illness and death in people infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-immune-culprit-severe-covid-cases.html Wed, 06 Apr 2022 15:10:49 EDT news568476645 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital immunologists have identified how immune sensors in infected cells organize and launch a multi-faceted innate immune response to infections with live viruses and bacteria. The discovery appears today in Nature. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-09-panoptosome-frontier-innate-immune-responses.html Wed, 01 Sep 2021 11:00:02 EDT news549710791 When Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, infects a person, the body's immune response is critical to how the disease will progress—either helping the body fight the bacterium or exacerbating the infection https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-07-scientists-tuberculosis-suppresses-immunity.html Thu, 29 Jul 2021 14:00:01 EDT news546769237 Interluekin-1α (IL-1α) is an important part of the immune response, but until now it has been unclear how this molecule is processed from its precursor, pro-IL-1α, and exits the cell during inflammasome activation. Now, researchers from Japan have found that gasdermin D, a protein that was already known to mediate pyroptosis, a form of regulated cell death, plays a crucial role in the maturation and release of IL-1α. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-06-key-player-cell-death-moonlights.html Fri, 18 Jun 2021 09:59:55 EDT news543229190 New research presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (held online, 10-13 May) finds evidence that structures called inflammasomes (a part of the innate immune system that helps to regulate inflammation) could play an important role in the development of obesity-associated colon cancer. The study is by Dr. Victoria Catalán and Professor Gema Frühbeck, University Hospital Navarra and CIBEROBN, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Pamplona, Spain, and colleagues. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-05-protein-complexes-inflammasomes-linked-obesity-related.html Mon, 10 May 2021 02:28:20 EDT news539832489 Many natural compounds have various anti-inflammatory and other beneficial properties that humans have been utilizing for medicinal purposes for hundreds of years. However, the specific molecular mechanisms behind these health-promoting effects are not always clear. One such compound is 1'-acetoxychavicol acetate, or ACA, which comes from the tropical ginger Alpinia plant. Now, researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) have identified how ACA can help in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-05-tropical-ginger-treatment-blocking-inflammation.html Fri, 07 May 2021 08:52:05 EDT news539596321 To effectively combat an infection, the body first has to sense it's been invaded, then the affected tissue must send out signals to corral resources to fight the intruder. Knowing more about these early stages of pathogen recognition and response may provide scientists with crucial clues when it comes to preventing infections or treating inflammatory diseases resulting from overactive immunity. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-gut-cells-alarm-parasites-invade.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 15:00:01 EST news528370224 "Wet" age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the most common causes of irreversible vision loss in the elderly, and it occurs when abnormal and leaky blood vessels form in the retina, in part due to inflammation. New research by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reveals insights into potential drivers of the disease—which currently has no cure—that could be targeted through prevention or treatment strategies. The findings are published in eLife. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-insights-age-related-macular-degeneration-spur.html Fri, 11 Dec 2020 16:15:06 EST news526925695 Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have identified the mechanisms behind inflammasome activation driven by infection with the fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. Fungal infection, especially with A. fumigatus, is a leading cause of infection-associated deaths in people with compromised immune systems. The work provides clues to a potential therapeutic approach for treating infectious and inflammatory disorders. The findings were published online today in Nature. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-reveals-fungal-infection-inflammation.html Wed, 02 Dec 2020 12:35:43 EST news526134938