Many elderly people spend their last years alone. Spouses pass and children scatter. But being lonely is much more than a silent house and a lack of companionship. Over time, loneliness not only takes a toll on the psyche but can have a serious physical impact as well. Feeling lonely has been...
In many types of cancer, activated immune cells infiltrate the tumor and influence clinical outcome. It is not always clear where these cells are activated, but results reported in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, indicate that in a subset of patients...
In a new clinical trial, researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center set out to test the theory that giving Crohn's disease patients a new immune system can cure severe cases of the disease. Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract with...
One of the challenges to HIV vaccine development has been the lack of an animal model that accurately reflects the human immune response to the virus and how the virus evolves to evade that response. In Science Translational Medicine, researchers from the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General...
According to a study published in Liver Transplantation, liver transplant recipients who continue to smoke or have smoked in the past are more likely to acquire viral hepatitis reinfection after the procedure. Each year, more than 5 million people in the world die due to tobacco use, according...
Blood flow to the heart often is interrupted during a heart attack or cardiac surgery. But when blood flow resumes, the heart may still falter. That's because collateral damage can occur as blood re-enters the heart, potentially slowing recovery and causing future cardiac troubles. Researchers...
It's not news that sleep deprivation may make you stressed, but a new study says that lack of sleep may actually have the same effect on your immune system as stress. If you're confused, this means that sleep deprivation can affect your body negatively, in the same way that stress does...
Researchers in the biological sciences department in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary have revealed how white blood cells move to infection or inflammation in the body; findings which could help lead to developing drug therapies for immune system disorders. The research is...
A study spearheaded by a Stanford University School of Medicine scientist has tracked the trajectories of key immune cells in response to short-term stress and traced, in great detail, how hormones triggered by such stress enhance immune readiness. The study, conducted in rats, adds weight to...
A pair of recent studies describes how pancreatic cancer cells produce a protein that attracts the body's immune cells and tricks them into helping cancer cells grow. The research, published by Cell Press in the June 12th issue of the journal Cancer Cell, also reveals that blocking the protein...
Two clinical trials led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers in collaboration with other medical centers, testing experimental drugs aimed at restoring the immune system's ability to spot and attack cancer, have shown promising early results in patients with advanced non-small cell...
A pioneering approach to imaging breast cancer in mice has revealed new clues about why the human immune system often fails to attack tumors and keep cancer in check. This observation, by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), may help to reveal new approaches to...
By discovering how vital immune cells known as dendritic cells recognize dead and damaged cells, researchers think they may have found a new approach for next generation vaccines that "trick" cells into launching an immune response. Such vaccines would be more effective and result in fewer...
Neutrophil granulocytes comprise important defences for the immune system. When pathogenic bacteria penetrate the body, they are the first on the scene to mobilise other immune cells via signal molecules, thereby containing the risk. To this end, they release serine proteases - enzymes that cut...
Women who have been infected by two different strains of HIV from two different sexual partners - a condition known as HIV superinfection - have more potent antibody responses that block the replication of the virus compared to women who've only been infected once. These findings, by researchers...
The circadian clock is a finely tuned genetic mechanism that regulates our sleep cycle and key metabolic changes during the 24-hour cycle. It also may help determine whether we get sick or not, according to a new Yale School of Medicine study published online in the journal Immunity. "People...
Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology have proven - for the first time in human tissues - the specific immune system T cells which trigger the destruction of type 1 diabetes in the pancreas. The finding is an important advance that verifies in humans several important...
Bacteria responsible for middle ear infections, pink eye and sinusitis protect themselves from further immune attack by transporting molecules meant to destroy them away from their inner membrane target, according to a study from Nationwide Children's Hospital. The study, published in the...
Children have fewer components that strengthen their immune defense than adults do. This is shown in a mapping of children's saliva that was carried out at Malmö University in Sweden. The study may have found an explanation for children's inability to fend off infections. The saliva in the...
Thanks to funding from the National Institutes of Health, Nationwide Children's Hospital will test the ability of a drug commonly used to improve immune function in pediatric cancer patients to help prevent hospital-acquired infection after severe trauma. It will be the first clinical trial...