Preventing an immune overreaction
2013-06-03
(Press-News.org) The immune system can run awry in many ways. Some examples of undesirable immune responses include those directed against the host (autoimmunity), transplanted organs (transplant rejection), or a harmless substance (allergies). In each case, the immune system is reacting to the presence of a molecule known as an antigen. Currently, the best treatment options involve broad spectrum suppression of the immune system, which increases susceptibility to infection. A preferable solution would be to specifically turn off the immune cells that respond to non-threatening objects.
In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Dr. James Paulson and colleagues at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California used antigen-decorated nanoparticles to block the development of antibodies to a immune response-inducing antigens in mice. In an accompanying commentary, Edward Clark of the University of Washington discusses how this finding could lead to therapeutic agents capable of precisely controlling our immune system, allowing favorable responses and inhibiting unfavorable responses.
INFORMATION:
TITLE: Antigenic liposomes displaying CD22 ligands induce antigen-specific B cell apoptosis
AUTHOR CONTACT:
James C Paulson
The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
Phone: 858-784-9634; Fax: 858-784-9690; E-mail: jpaulson@scripps.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/69187?key=d3ac5675f0e4224288c1
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: STALing B cell responses with CD22
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Edward A Clark
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Phone: 206 543-8706; E-mail: Eclark@wanprc.org
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/69670?key=0b5f09cda9a91d9896b6
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2013-06-03
The risk of acute kidney disease is doubled for people taking oral fluoroquinolone antibiotics, according to a study of published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Fluoroquinolones, including ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and moxifloxacin, are common broad-spectrum antibiotics most often used to treat respiratory and urogenital infections. Case reports have indicated acute kidney injury with use, and prescription labels carry a warning of kidney failure. However, when oral fluoroquinolones are prescribed in clinical practice, kidney injury is usually not considered.
Researchers ...
2013-06-03
The world can only meet its future food needs through innovation, including the use of agricultural biotechnology, a Harvard development specialist said today.
Since their commercial debut in the mid-1990s, genetically-designed crops have added about $100 billion to world crop output, avoided massive pesticide use and greenhouse gas emissions, spared vast tracts of land and fed millions of additional people worldwide, said Professor Calestous Juma of the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Speaking to graduates of McGill University, ...
2013-06-03
Final analysis of the EORTC 10981-22023 AMAROS (After Mapping of the Axilla: Radiotherapy Or Surgery?) trial has shown that both axillary lymph node dissection and axillary radiotherapy provide excellent regional control for breast cancer patients with a positive sentinel node biopsy. The AMAROS trial also found that axillary radiotherapy reduces the risk of short term and long-term lymphoedema as compared to axillary lymph node dissection.
Prof. Emiel J. Rutgers of The Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni Van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis in Amsterdam, the EORTC Breast Cancer ...
2013-06-03
VIDEO:
This is the article as it appears in JoVE Behavior.
Click here for more information.
On June 3rd, JoVE will publish a research technique that allows neural imaging of auditory stimuli in songbirds via MRI. The technique, developed by Dr. Annemie Van der Linden and her laboratory at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, will be one of the first published in JoVE Behavior, a new section of the video journal that focuses on observational and experimental techniques that ...
2013-06-03
LA JOLLA, CA – June 3, 2013 – The human immune system is remarkably efficient, but sometimes its attack is misdirected, leading to allergies, autoimmune diseases and rejection of transplant organs and therapeutic drugs. Current immune suppressants have major drawbacks, but a team from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has demonstrated a new technique that may lead to a better way to selectively repress unwanted immune reactions without disabling the immune system as a whole.
As a proof of principle, the study, reported online ahead of print on June 3, 2013, by the ...
2013-06-03
Although nearly a thousand exoplanets have been detected indirectly — most using the radial velocity or transit methods [1] — and many more candidates await confirmation, only a dozen exoplanets have been directly imaged. Nine years after ESO's Very Large Telescope captured the first image of an exoplanet, the planetary companion to the brown dwarf 2M1207 (eso0428 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0428/), the same team has caught on camera what is probably the lightest of these objects so far [2][3].
"Direct imaging of planets is an extremely challenging technique that ...
2013-06-03
Improving data quality in large online data access facilities depends on a combination of automated checks and capturing expert knowledge, according to a paper published in the open-access journal Zookeys. The authors, from the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) welcome a recent paper by Mesibov (2013) highlighting errors in millipede data, but argue that addressing such issues requires the joint efforts of 'aggregators' and the wider expert community.
The paper notes that aggregations of data openly exposed in facilities ...
2013-06-03
Lignocellulosic waste such as sawdust or straw can be used to produce biofuel – but only if the long cellulose and xylan chains can be successfully broken down into smaller sugar molecules. To do this, fungi are used which, by means of a specific chemical signal, can be made to produce the necessary enzymes. Because this procedure is, however, very expensive, Vienna University of Technology has been investigating the molecular switch that regulates enzyme production in the fungus. As a result, it is now possible to manufacture genetically modified fungi that produce the ...
2013-06-03
AURORA, Colo. (June 3, 2013) – Clinicians often wait too long before talking to elderly patients about giving up driving even though many may be open to those discussions earlier, according to a new study from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the CU College of Nursing.
"These conversations often don't happen until clinicians see a 'red flag' which could mean an accident or some physical problem that makes driving more difficult for the elderly," said Marian Betz, MD, MPH, at the CU School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "But what's interesting ...
2013-06-03
VIDEO:
Baby Logan shows off his healthy development by rolling from his tummy to his back.
University of Alberta researcher Johanna Darrah, a professor of physical therapy, says infants develop the ability...
Click here for more information.
(Edmonton) Baby, keep on rolling. A campaign to put babies to bed on their backs to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome has not impaired infants' rolling abilities, according to University of Alberta research.
Johanna Darrah, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Preventing an immune overreaction
