Two junior research groups at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have developed a drug complex that kills cancer cells in such a clever manner that they raise a red flag as they die. They signal to the immune system that something is seriously wrong with…
An experimental mRNA vaccine has boosted the tumor-fighting effects of immunotherapy in a mouse-model study, bringing researchers one step closer to their goal of developing a universal vaccine to “wake up” the immune system against cancer.
Researchers at MIT and other institutions have identified compounds that can fight off viral infection by activating a defense pathway inside host cells. These compounds, they believe, could be used as antiviral drugs that work against not just one but…
A protein called PAR1 helps lymphatic vessels structurally transform to boost fluid drainage and support healing when the lungs are injured according to researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine. Injury—whether by infection, toxins, or trauma—can cause f…
Controlling the activity of specific genes in the laboratory through the editing of their epigenetic marks is now a reality thanks to the CRISPR technology. A team from the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute has demonstrated that it is possible…
Doctors and genetic researchers at The University of Manchester have discovered that changes in a gene leads to severe nerve damage in children following a mild bout of infection.
New research has found that delivering a stronger form of the tuberculosis vaccine directly to the lungs can help generate protective immune cells to help fight the disease. The research is published in the journal Mucosal Immunology.
A specially engineered antibody that can accurately deliver RNA treatments into hard-to-reach and hard-to-treat tumors significantly improved survival and reduced tumor sizes in animal models, according to a study reported in Science Translational Medi…
Blindness, pneumonia, severe diarrhea and even death—measles virus infections, especially in children, can have devastating consequences. Fortunately, we have a safe and effective defense. Measles vaccines are estimated to have averted more than 60 mil…
Cells and tissues surrounding a breast cancer tumor may hold critical information about how patients will respond to treatment, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins University.
mRNA bundled in lipid nanoparticles trains T cells in mice to eliminate cancer. Coupled with noninvasive imaging, researchers tracked the in situ CAR-T cells to assess their effectiveness and safety.
Immunotherapy using CAR T cells is finding ever more applications. In addition to their use in the treatment of blood and lymphatic cancers, CAR T cells are now also being investigated for solid tumors and various autoimmune diseases. With the growing …
Although relatively rare, many childhood cancers remain life-threatening and lack effective personalized treatments. Rhabdoid tumors are among these fatal cancers and can develop in various tissues and organs. Approximately 12 new cases of this extreme…
The National Cancer Center Research Institute in Tokyo reports that a newly isolated gut bacterium, designated Hominenteromicrobium strain YB328, mobilizes specialized dendritic cells to strengthen the impact of PD-1 blockade immunotherapy across sever…
High dietary inflammatory index (DII), which quantifies the inflammatory potential of diet, is associated with increased prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD), according to a study published online June 19 in Frontiers of Immunology.
As cancer cases have increased worldwide, the disease has become more complex, presenting challenges to scientific advances in diagnosis and treatment. In this context, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a valuable tool for predicting and dete…
Cervical cancer is one of the most common gynecologic cancers worldwide and continues to be a leading cause of cancer-related death in women. While early detection through screening has improved outcomes, treatment options for advanced or recurrent dis…
Viruses and bacteria are always trying to sneak into our bodies, but researchers at the University of Missouri are discovering that our own biology may already hold the keys to fighting off some of the deadliest infectious threats.
A new international study led by researchers at McMaster University has identified the most effective and safest treatments for people suffering from chronic urticaria, more commonly known as chronic hives.
Immune checkpoints are regulatory proteins that prevent the immune system from attacking healthy tissues. Some cancer cells exploit these checkpoints to avoid immune detection. Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB)—a therapy that uses antibodies to block th…
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and collaborators have identified a previously overlooked protein, Epac1, as a key driver of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic and progressive lung-scarring disease. Their findings…
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg and ETH Zurich have created the first integrated map detailing the metabolic and molecular changes in human blood stem cells as they age, specialize, or turn cancero…
Penicillins are first-choice antibiotics for many common infections, but more than one in 15 UK adults have a penicillin allergy label on their medical records. In the event of an infection, they will be prescribed alternative antibiotics which can be …
The United States could safely drop tetanus and diphtheria booster shots for adults and save an estimated $1 billion a year, according to a new review led by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University.
Singapore researchers have discovered that a new cancer drug, originally developed at A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (A*STAR IMCB), shows potential as a new treatment approach for two leading causes of blindness worldwide.
DropScreen (DS) and ViewAllergy39 (VA) are not equally effective for detecting specific immunoglobulin (Ig) E involved in pollinosis, according to a study published online in the Journal of Immunoassay and Immunochemistry.
A study led by Prof. Liang Xingjie’s team from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) reported a biomimetic physical barrier (BPB) that temporarily blocks T cell-tumor cell interactions, effectively …
Scientists from the Centenary Institute and the University of Sydney have made a landmark discovery that could lead to safer and more effective gene therapies for a range of serious genetic disorders including Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Pompe disease…
Feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP, is a serious and historically fatal disease in cats caused by a coronavirus. It behaves in many ways like severe coronavirus infections in humans, causing widespread inflammation, T cell exhaustion, and chronic im…
University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center researcher Weisi Yan, M.D., Ph.D., recently shared his work on radiation therapy at a major international conference, showcasing how new techniques could better protect patients’ immune systems while fighting…
A new study conducted by researchers from McGill University, the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research (LDI) at the Jewish General Hospital, Princess Margaret Cancer Center and MIT has identified a novel approach to combat aggressive breast cancers…
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified over 250 proteins that are strongly affected by malaria, which could help predict the severity of the disease and thus enable faster treatment for the most critical patients.
A research team at the Medical University of Vienna has developed a blood test that allows the identification of individuals at risk for developing multiple sclerosis (MS) with a high degree of certainty years before the onset of symptoms. As a result,…
In order to produce effective targeted therapies for cancer, scientists need to isolate the genetic and phenotypic characteristics of cancer cells, both within and across different tumors, because those differences impact how tumors respond to treatment.
Researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center have identified a signaling loop involved in the growth and persistence of leukemia cells—and developed a novel immunotherapy that can disrupt that loop to boost immune function and improve survival. The findi…
At the surface, the immune response to a flu virus is simple. Some cells recognize the pathogen and send a signal to the immune system, and immune cells produce a potentially lifesaving antibody against the virus. Antigen in, antibody out.
Young patients with advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, now have a better chance of having their own children after treatment.
Approximately 40% of the European population are allergic to pollen, and their symptoms cause an estimated loss of 100 million school and workdays every year.
Four years after pre-surgery treatment with a novel combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors, nivolumab and relatlimab, 87% of patients with stage III melanoma remained alive, according to new results from a study led by researchers at The Universit…
Adult-onset leukoencephalopathy with axonal spheroids and pigmented glia (ALSP) is a progressive neurological disease with an average age of onset at 43 years and an average life expectancy of only three to five years after symptoms begin. ALSP is caus…
In a follow-up analysis to the pivotal TOPAZ-1 study, which established the combination therapy of durvalumab (an immunotherapy drug) plus gemcitabine and cisplatin (GemCis, chemotherapy drugs) as the first-line treatment for people with advanced bilia…
In a newly published article in Nature Genetics, researchers from the University of Chicago have identified tumor aneuploidy—an imbalance in the number of chromosomes—as a powerful biomarker associated with resistance to immunotherapy across cancer typ…
Infections in the brain can have serious consequences and are often fatal. The immune defense system works differently here than in the rest of the body. A team of researchers at TWINCORE—Center for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research in Hanov…
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women worldwide and represents a major public health concern due to its high incidence and significant mortality rates. In the U.S. alone, approximately 297,790 new cases of invasive breast canc…
Researchers at University of Tsukuba have identified multiple T-cell subtypes with unique characteristics in follicular lymphoma, a prevalent type of blood cancer. These T cells regulate the proliferation and apoptosis of tumor cells and significantly …
Research led by Naval Medical University’s Changzheng Hospital in China reports that an off-the-shelf cell therapy built from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) loosened life-limiting skin and organ scarring in a woman with systemic sclerosis.
Teclistamab-cqyv is a T-cell-engaging bispecific antibody that targets multiple myeloma cells via the B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) receptor. It received accelerated approval in 2022 for patients treated with four or more lines of prior therapy base…
The herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), which affects almost two‑thirds of the world’s population and is generally associated with oral herpes, may cause painful cold sores or fever blisters around the mouth.
Exposure to a common fungal molecule can reprogram immune cells in the lungs, causing them to overreact to infection-like signals and worsen lung damage, according to new research.
Preliminary results of an observational clinical trial underway at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center are shedding light on why some patients with an aggressive form of metastatic breast cancer fare better than others after receiving standard tre…
A team of researchers at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has identified a potential new strategy to prevent, and even reverse, immune checkpoint inhibitor–induced type 1 diabetes, a rare but life-threatening side effect of cancer im…
Research led by the Joldasbekov Institute of Mechanics and Engineering in Kazakhstan, reports that camel milk intake significantly reduced airway hyperresponsiveness and lung inflammation in a laboratory model of allergic asthma in mice.
Mayo Clinic physician and researcher Dr. Abba Zubair’s work combines two passions—medicine and space—for the benefit of astronauts and people on Earth. His research in space is yielding discoveries in cancer, stroke, bone loss and more.
While immunosuppressive medications are critical to preventing rejection of transplant organs, they also come with plenty of downsides. They can cause harsh side effects, like headaches and tremors, and increase the risk of infection and cancer. But wh…
Targeted cancer drugs known as CDK4/6 inhibitors have improved outcomes for patients with advanced or metastatic HR+/HER2- breast cancer, but many patients still eventually relapse and become resistant to therapy. New research co-headed by a Fox Chase …
In biomedical science, the immune system is described as a cellular defense network that identifies and neutralizes threats. In te ao Māori (the Māori worldview), it can be seen as a dynamic system of guardianship, known as te pūnaha awhikiri.
T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a highly aggressive form of blood cancer that can occur in both children and adults. It is characterized by failures in the maturation of T-lymphocytes, key immune cells involved in the defense against inf…
Corticosteroids, a commonly prescribed medication to alleviate cancer-related symptoms for non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with immunotherapy, are the main reason certain immunotherapies may fail in treating the disease, according to new re…
Breast cancer often relapses in distant organs even when complete regression of primary tumors is achieved after initial treatment. Dormant and persistent disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) have been observed in animals with non-metastatic disease, which …
Researchers at the School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), have found that combining the active ingredient extracted from the traditional Chinese medicine Astragalus membranaceus (huang qi) with the wi…
Families who introduce peanut butter and eggs to their baby’s diet at about six months of age can significantly reduce the chances of them developing a life-threatening allergy, according to a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immu…
A new study, published recently in Nature Communications, offers the first-ever map of which parts of the Chikungunya virus trigger the strongest response from the body’s T cells.
Cancer-fighting T-cells, the immune system’s primary enforcers, are scarce in the rare kidney cancer called chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC) and those that are present are indifferent to the tumor threat and traditional immune therapies, reveal…
Lung macrophages play a pivotal role in diseases like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Two types of macrophages—the white blood cells that defend the body by killing microbes, removing dead cells and stimulating immune responses—are found in the lung. Th…
A pioneering new study published in Nature Microbiology, led by J. Oriol Sunyer, professor of immunology and pathobiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, and a team of researchers at Penn Vet and the University of New Mexico, has uncovered a surp…
Researchers have long focused on the STING (Stimulator of Interferon Genes) pathway as a way to harness the immune system’s natural defenses against cancer. This pathway, which plays a key role in helping the body defend against potential pathogens, ca…
As antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” make infections trickier to treat, some in the medical community are turning to bacteriophages for backup. Also known as phages, these viruses exclusively target bacteria, allowing them to tackle bacterial infections…
A new study by scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus reveals that joint tissue from patients with early-stage rheumatoid arthritis often have high levels of a protein called granzyme used by the immune system to attack pathog…
A team of researchers from the San Raffaele-Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-TIGET, Milan), led by Nadia Coltella and Luigi Naldini, has unveiled a powerful strategy to rejuvenate the effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell thera…
Adding targeted radiation to chemotherapy prior to surgery may offer better control of pancreatic tumors—potentially reducing the rate of recurrence after treatment, according to a new study from UT Southwestern Medical Center. Published in Clinical Ca…
Patients with ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) whose tumors have specific mutations in the PPP2R1A gene were found to have improved survival following immunotherapy compared to patients without these mutations, according to researchers from The Univ…
Advanced treatments, known as immunotherapies that activate T cells—our body’s immune cells—to eliminate cancer cells, have shown limited efficacy as standalone therapies for glioblastoma, the most lethal form of brain tumor. This is due to their minim…
When ocrelizumab became the first FDA-approved treatment for early forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2017, it offered patients immense hope. The long-awaited drug is a monoclonal antibody that depletes B cells—the immune cells that drive MS progressi…
A team of researchers led by NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Weiqiang Chen has developed a miniature device that could transform how blood cancer treatments are tested and tailored for patients.
Relapsed/refractory peripheral and cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (R/R PTCL and CTCL) are aggressive blood cancers that often resist standard therapy. Patients with these lymphomas may require stem cell transplants, but the disease needs to be brought unde…
The innate immune system is the body’s first line of defense against pathogens and foreign substances. An essential component of this system are pattern recognition receptors, which recognize non-self RNA—such as that from viruses and bacteria—and trig…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved GSK’s autoinjector of Benlysta (belimumab) for subcutaneous injection in patients ≥5 years of age with active lupus nephritis who are receiving standard therapy.
Three major Mount Sinai research studies offer new hope for patients facing chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a rare type of blood cancer. The studies were led by Adam Kittai, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) at t…
Northwestern Medicine investigators have identified a surprising culprit in the progression of inflammatory bowel disease: a naturally occurring metabolic compound in the gut, according to a study published in Nature Immunology.
An engineered protein turns off the kind of immune cells most likely to damage tissue as part of type-1 diabetes, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, shows a new study in mice.
In the fight against cancer, immunotherapy—which aims to boost the body’s natural defenses against cancer—is experiencing remarkable growth. Most of these treatments are based on CD8 T lymphocytes, “killer cells” able to eliminate diseased cells. A tea…
New research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and La Jolla Institute for Immunology, published today in Nature Microbiology, reveals an opportunity for developing a therapy against cytomegalovirus (CMV), the leading infectious cause…
A pioneering study has provided unprecedented insights into the immune response following pig-to-human kidney xenotransplantation. The findings, presented today at the ESOT Congress 2025, mark a significant step forward in overcoming the biggest challe…
A study led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers found that combining chemotherapy and immunotherapy before surgery for patients with aggressive stage III non-small cell lung cancer that is considered difficult or impossible to surgically remove…
Van Andel Institute scientists and collaborators have discovered a potential treatment target that may re-energize dysfunctional or “exhausted” immune cells in their fight against cancer.
Misbehaving T cells light up long before Parkinson’s symptoms show, zeroing in on vulnerable brain proteins. Their early surge could double as an alarm bell and a target for stop-it-early treatments.
Exposure to fire smoke—which can be composed of particulate matter, gases, materials from buildings such as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), toxic metals, and carcinogenic compounds—may alter the immune system on a cellular level, …
Instead of using a patient’s own bone or titanium to repair skull fractures, researchers are working on using artificial materials. New research—surprisingly—shows that the body’s immune system helps strengthen artificial materials.
BCG therapy—the gold standard treatment for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), where the cancer has not penetrated the muscle layer—is one of the earliest forms of cancer immunotherapy. Now, 50 years after it was first developed from the tuber…
Hot tubs don’t just feel great, they may actually outperform saunas when it comes to health perks. A study found that soaking in hot water raises core body temperature more than dry or infrared saunas, triggering stronger heart, blood vessel, and immun…
Biological drugs have improved the lives of many people with severe asthma. However, a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that some immune cells with high inflammatory potential are not completely eradicated after treatment.
For patients with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), a one-time surgical application of prademagene zamikeracel, an autologous COL7A1 gene-modified cellular sheet that is sutured onto a large, chronic RDEB wound, improves wound healing …
Mitochondria have primarily been known as the energy-producing components of cells. But scientists are increasingly discovering that these small organelles do much more than just power cells. They are also involved in immune functions such as controlli…
A University of Alberta research team has identified a DNA structure that activates the immune system in cancer cells that are usually resistant to immunotherapy, offering hope of new, more effective treatments for colorectal and other cancers.
Scientists at Nagoya University in Japan studied what happens when macrophages—a type of immune cell—encounter dying cancer cells in tumors and discovered a mechanism that accelerates tumor growth. When cancer cells begin to die within tumors, they exp…
