http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Animal species that sleep for longer do not suffer as much from parasite infestation and have a greater concentration of immune cells in their blood according to a study published in the open-access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news150695460.html Biology Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:51:00 EST news150695460 Molecules of sugar sitting on the surface of cancer cells are keys to the development of a new vaccine aimed at both treating and stopping the spread of certain types of cancers called carcinomas, which include prostate, breast, ovarian and lung, among others. Armed with a new two-year grant for $600,000 from the Gateway for Cancer Research, an Illinois-based philanthropic foundation, immunologist Alessandra Franco, M.D., Ph.D., and her co-workers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego are hoping to develop a low-cost immunotherapy for prostate carcinoma that may also have use against a variety of other carcinomas as well. http://www.physorg.com/news150657878.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:24:38 EST news150657878 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using cancer cells that were originally isolated from an anaplastic large cell lymphoma patient, two researchers, including a faculty member of The University of Texas at Austin's College of Pharmacy, have identified a novel regulatory mechanism in inflammatory signaling of immune cells that may prove beneficial in treating cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news150652358.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:52:38 EST news150652358 Researchers at McGill University, the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) and the McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre, along with colleagues at other Canadian and Belgian institutions, have discovered DNA variations in a gene that increases susceptibility to developing Crohn's disease. Their study was published in the January issue of the journal Nature Genetics. http://www.physorg.com/news150646381.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:13:01 EST news150646381 Masses of immune cells that form as a hallmark of tuberculosis (TB) have long been thought to be the body's way of trying to protect itself by literally walling off the bacteria. But a new study in the January 9th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, offers evidence that the TB bacteria actually sends signals that encourage the growth of those organized granuloma structures, and for good reason: each granuloma serves as a kind of hub for the infectious bugs in the early stages of infection, allowing them to expand further and spread throughout the body. http://www.physorg.com/news150643255.html Biology Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:20:55 EST news150643255 Just days after the first retinal cell gets infected with the common cytomegalovirus, contiguous cells start committing suicide and researchers believe their death may provide clues to better treatment of this potentially blinding infection. http://www.physorg.com/news150374176.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:36:16 EST news150374176 A research team from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has identified a protein produced by cancerous lung epithelial cells that enhances metastasis by stimulating the activity of inflammatory cells. Their findings, to be published in the January 1 issue of the journal Nature, explain how advanced cancer cells usurp components of the host innate immune system to generate an inflammatory microenvironment hospitable for the metastatic spread of lung cancer. The discovery could lead to a therapy to limit metastasis of this most common lethal form of cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news149951977.html Medicine & Health Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:19:37 EST news149951977 Mast cells are now recognized as "granular cells of the connective tissue", whose activation exacerbates allergic immune responses and as key players in the establishment of innate immunity as well as modulators of adaptive immune responses. The role of mast cells in the gastrointestinal mucosa is not only to react to antigens, but also to actively regulate the barrier and transport properties of the intestinal epithelium. http://www.physorg.com/news149247749.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:42:29 EST news149247749 Parkinson disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that impairs movement, balance, speech, and other functions. It is characterized by the loss of nerves in the brain that produce a substance known as dopamine. Although the loss of dopamine-containing nerves is accompanied by accumulation of immune cells known as T cells, these accumulating T cells were not thought to have a role in the development of disease. http://www.physorg.com/news149188561.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:16:01 EST news149188561 (PhysOrg.com) -- MIT engineers have found that antibodies do not need a particular sugar attachment long believed to be essential to their function, a discovery that could make producing therapeutic antibodies much easier and cheaper in the future. http://www.physorg.com/news149184804.html Chemistry Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:13:24 EST news149184804 NYU Langone Medical Center scientists and their collaborators at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., have discovered an unexpected cause for the fatal seizures seen in mice with viral meningitis, an infection of the central nervous system, according to a study published in the journal Nature. The finding may lead to a new way of thinking about how the human immune system responds to viral diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news149180532.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:02:12 EST news149180532 A biological tit for tat may hold clues to improving the success of islet cell transplants intended to cure type 1 diabetes, according to a Medical College of Georgia scientist. http://www.physorg.com/news148753181.html Medicine & Health Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:19:41 EST news148753181 New Rochelle, NY, December 16, 2008 -Once believed to be important only for bone health, vitamin D is now seen as having a critical function in maintaining the immune system throughout life. The newly recognized disease risks associated with vitamin D deficiency are clearly documented in a report in the December issue (Volume 3, Number 4) of Breastfeeding Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., and the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news148661965.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:59:25 EST news148661965 Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered a critical new way a man can transmit the HIV virus to a woman. http://www.physorg.com/news148656888.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:34:48 EST news148656888 Research led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center scientists has figured out why a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine used in 1966 to inoculate children against the infection instead caused severe respiratory disease and effectively stopped efforts to make a better one. The findings, published online on Dec. 14 in Nature Medicine, could restart work on effective killed-virus vaccines not only for RSV but other respiratory viruses, researchers say. The new findings also debunk a popular theory that the 1966 vaccine was ineffective because the formalin used to inactivate the virus disrupted critical antigens, the substances that stimulate the production of protective antibodies. http://www.physorg.com/news148577725.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:35:25 EST news148577725 The immune system's battle against invading bacteria reaches its peak activity at night and is lowest during the day. http://www.physorg.com/news148486853.html Biology Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:20:53 EST news148486853 Research out of the Ireland Cancer Center of University Hospitals Case Medical Center has found that the vast majority of triple negative breast cancers express the MUC-1 target. This first-of-its-kind finding, presented today at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, has paved the way for an upcoming vaccine trial for patients with early stage triple negative breast cancer that could potentially prevent recurrence of this aggressive type of breast cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news148315876.html Medicine & Health Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:51:16 EST news148315876 HIV is so deadly largely because it evolves so rapidly. With a single virus as the origin of an infection, most patients will quickly come to harbor thousands of different versions of HIV, all a little bit different and all competing with one another to most efficiently infect that person's cells. Its rapid and unique evolution in every patient is what allows HIV to evade the body's defenses and gives the virus great skill at developing resistance to a pantheon of antiviral drugs. http://www.physorg.com/news148278749.html Medicine & Health Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:32:29 EST news148278749 Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes and celiac disease appear to share a common genetic origin, scientists at the University of Cambridge and Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, have confirmed. http://www.physorg.com/news148152103.html Medicine & Health Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:21:43 EST news148152103 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bloodstream infections frequently occur and commonly cause death among critically ill patients. Scientists at the University of Maine may have unlocked the answer to treating one of these infections that kills more than 30 percent of the patients it infects. http://www.physorg.com/news148151948.html Medicine & Health Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:19:08 EST news148151948 Researchers may have identified one of the body's earliest responses to a group of parasites that causes illness in developing nations. http://www.physorg.com/news148148414.html Medicine & Health Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:20:14 EST news148148414 A UCSF study has found that a surprisingly high number of maternal cells enters the fetus during pregnancy, prompting the generation of special immune cells in the fetus that suppress a response against the mother. http://www.physorg.com/news147622624.html Medicine & Health Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:17:04 EST news147622624 People who manage to control HIV on their own are providing scientists with valuable information about how the immune system eliminates virus-infected cells. A new study, published in the December 4th issue of Immunity, a Cell Press publication, identifies specific characteristics of the immune cells that successfully destroy HIV-infected cells and may drive strategies for developing the next generation of HIV vaccines and therapies. http://www.physorg.com/news147616847.html Medicine & Health Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:40:47 EST news147616847 Forget what's number one at the box office this week. The most exciting new film features the intricate workings of the body, filmed by scientists using ground-breaking technology. http://www.physorg.com/news147547181.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:19:41 EST news147547181 A research team led by the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology and Albany Medical College has illuminated the important role of natural killer (NK) T cells in Lyme disease, demonstrating that the once little understood white blood cells are central to clearing the bacterial infection and reducing the intensity and duration of arthritis associated with Lyme disease. http://www.physorg.com/news147538659.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:57:39 EST news147538659 Mosquitoes are like Typhoid Mary. They can spread viruses which cause West Nile fever, dengue fever, or yellow fever without themselves getting sick. Scientists long thought that the mosquito didn't care whether it had a virus hitchhiker, but have now discovered, "There is a war going on," said Zach Adelman, assistant professor of entomology at Virginia Tech. http://www.physorg.com/news147374555.html Biology Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:22:35 EST news147374555 Some 80,000 people in Germany suffer from multiple sclerosis - their immune system attacks and destroys healthy nerve tissue. Researchers at the Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg have succeeded in vaccinating mice with specially treated, autologous immune cells and preventing them from developing encephalitis, which is similar to multiple sclerosis in humans. A protein of the nervous system, that is the target of the harmful immune reaction in multiple sclerosis, was placed on the surface of the cells; the cells were treated with an agent that suppresses immune defense. http://www.physorg.com/news147367658.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:27:38 EST news147367658 Scientists at Johns Hopkins have determined how the characteristic shedding of fatty substances, or lipids, by ovarian tumors allows the cancer to evade the body's immune system, leaving the disease to spread unchecked. Ovarian cancer is considered to be one of the most aggressive malignancies, killing more than 70 percent of diagnosed women within five years, including an estimated 15,000 this year. http://www.physorg.com/news147358984.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:03:04 EST news147358984 Our immune system plays an essential role in protecting us from diseases, but how does it do this exactly? Dutch biologist Suzanne van Helden discovered that before dendritic cells move to the lymph nodes they lose their sticky feet. This helps them to move much faster. Immature dendritic cells patrol the tissues in search of antigens. After exposure to such antigens they undergo a rigorous maturation process. During this maturation the dendritic cells migrate to the lymph nodes to activate T cells. Suzanne van Helden studied the adhesion and migration of both immature and mature dendritic cells. http://www.physorg.com/news147358649.html Biology Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:57:29 EST news147358649 A study published by Elsevier this month in Clinical Immunology, the official journal of the Clinical Immunology Society (CIS), describes a new method that facilitates the induction of a specific type of immune suppressive cells, called 'regulatory T cells' for therapeutic use. These immune suppressive cells show great potential for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and improving transplantation outcomes. http://www.physorg.com/news147355281.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:01:21 EST news147355281