Autoimmune diseases arise when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissues. Researchers have long known that these diseases tend to run in families, but the genetic relationships between different autoimmune diseases have remained unclear.
The immune system is made up of specialized cells and proteins that help defend the body from pathogens and cancer. Most of the time, the immune system performs its job remarkably well. However, in some situations, the immune system doesn’t work well e…
Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most aggressive malignancies, with a particularly poor prognosis even when diagnosed at a localized stage. In a paper published in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, researchers from GIGA and Liège Univer…
Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide, and while many can control their symptoms with inhaled steroid medications, about 10% develop a more severe form that does not respond well to these treatments. This steroid-resistant asthma is one…
Molecules called reactive oxygen species, which include so-called “free radicals,” have long been viewed as damaging byproducts of our body’s metabolism—a reason antioxidant supplements have been considered a potential way to reduce cancer risk.
Bone and joint infections cause significant health problems for patients and lead to millions of dollars in added health costs per year, but clinicians lack reliable tools to predict which patients will develop severe or persistent disease. And when st…
Aging may be partly fueled by immune cells losing their ability to clear away damaged, inflammation-promoting cells. Blocking a single receptor restored that cleanup process in mice, reducing inflammation and helping their organs, muscles, and memory r…
Immune cells that normally protect the body from damage by attacking foreign or infected cells are found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders at much higher levels than in healthy brains. The cells appear to contribu…
Researchers at the University of Liverpool helped uncover how the body adapts its immune defenses during periods of increased demand, such as infection, inflammation and recovery following stem cell transplantation.
Naglaa Shoukry and Petronela Ancuta, researchers in the Immunopathology Research Theme at the Centre de recherche du CHUM (CRCHUM), are shedding new light on one of the greatest challenges in HIV research: understanding why the virus remains in the bod…
Following nearly 10,000 older women for 10 years, researchers found that tea drinking was associated with slightly higher hip bone density. Moderate coffee consumption did not appear harmful, but drinking more than five cups a day was linked to lower b…
National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers have discovered rare antibodies that could inform the development of an intervention for alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), an emerging tick bite-associated condition that can lead to allergic reactions to a molec…
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that particularly affects young adults. The disease is driven by immune cells—primarily what are known as T lymphocytes. These cells normally fight off pathogens such as viruses, bact…
When a patient is facing certain cancers or an immune condition, clinicians turn to white blood cells for clues about the progression of both diseases and their treatments. From a standard blood draw, a clinical lab isolates peripheral blood mononuclea…
According to the World Health Organization, one in eight people lives with obesity. Yet despite numerous health education programs, books, articles and treatments, many individuals still struggle to lose weight once they have developed obesity. Why thi…
In their quest to understand how cancers take root, grow and spread, scientists have for the past half-century explored the genetic aberrations and microenvironmental peculiarities of tumors and their constituent cells. Such studies continue to yield d…
Deep within the cellular landscape, a quiet failure was taking place, impeding a potentially successful form of cancer treatment. For years, scientists hoped an essential part of the innate immune system that detects foreign DNA in cellular cytoplasm—t…
Influenza continues to cause major illness each year in the United States, leading to more than 35,000 deaths annually. Children, older adults, pregnant individuals, people with weakened immune systems and those with chronic conditions such as heart di…
Children with chest tightness variant asthma (CTVA) have higher fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) levels and lower measures of small airway function, according to a study published online Aug. 10 in Frontiers in Pediatrics.
The secret to a long life may lie in the genomes of the longest-lived mammals for their size: bats. That idea captivated Juan Manuel Vazquez when he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago, but at the time he couldn’t find any good publishe…
CAR T-cell therapy dramatically reduced disease activity in six people with severe rheumatoid arthritis that had resisted other treatments, with three achieving medication-free remission. The treatment may work by clearing out harmful immune cells and …
New research by Malaghan’s Connor Laboratory, published in PNAS, shows how directing the immune system toward conserved areas of the COVID virus and its many variants using RNA technology could be a significant step toward designing broad-spectrum vacc…
Scientists from Gladstone Institutes, UC San Francisco and Stanford University, in collaboration with Biohub, have unveiled a massive, high-resolution functional map of human immune cells that promises to transform our understanding of how genetics con…
When the immune system encounters a virus, it produces antibodies designed to recognize and eliminate the invader. But in some people infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the immune response goes awry, producing autoantibodies—anti…
Researchers have mapped how the immune response in people with sepsis changes over time. The work, led by King’s College London, could help pave the way for treatments that target the specific parts of the immune system that are altered over the time c…
Researchers at the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University (BU) have developed a scalable method for generating CD4+ helper T cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), overcoming a longstand…
A team involving researchers from Wroclaw Medical University analyzed studies of people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and mood disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder. They found that the two groups showed distinct patterns of inna…
Two people spend an evening in the same garden and receive roughly the same number of mosquito bites. By morning, one barely notices them—while the other is covered in large, swollen, intensely itchy welts that linger for days.
Vasculitis is a disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks blood vessel walls, causing them to become inflamed. If left untreated, the rare disease can severely damage organs, including the kidneys and lungs. Physicians can treat vasculitis …
Why does the same infection cause only mild symptoms in one person but more serious disease in another? A new study led by the HUN-REN BRC Szeged Momentum Systems Immunology Research Group, together with several international collaborators, suggests th…
A study published in Science Translational Medicine shows that the increased risk of preterm birth associated with urinary tract infection (UTI) is linked to the body’s immune response to the infection rather than to the bacteria themselves.
Every three to five days, the layer of cells lining our intestines is completely renewed—the fastest turnover rate in the human body. Such rapid regeneration is an absolute necessity for tissue that endures constant mechanical stress as well as an abun…
A new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reveals that the three-dimensional folding of DNA at a key genetic locus helps determine when two related immune genes, Ets1 and Fli1, are switched on in T …
The differences in male and female sex hormones are most evident during growth, puberty and reproduction, when they help shape how the body develops and functions. Beyond their more visible effects, these chemical messengers can also influence how cert…
Zika virus has been spreading for decades, but it first grabbed worldwide headlines in 2016. That February, with an outbreak sweeping the Americas, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the surge in Zika-linked birth defects a “public health eme…
Immune checkpoint blockade is a form of cancer treatment that works by releasing the natural brakes on the immune system, allowing T cells to find and destroy cancer cells. Although it has transformed cancer immunotherapy, patients usually have low res…
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered that removing the gene for Regnase-1 from engineered immune cells makes them more effective at treating relapsed osteosarcoma. There is a great clinical need for new therapies for chil…
A new multi-institutional study led by researchers at Dartmouth Health and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth suggests that alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-borne disease that can result in a chronic allergy to meat and animal byproducts, also may compli…
The immune system possesses legions of T cells that, if primed, could hunt down and destroy tumors. Now, a UC San Francisco team has invented a way to do this by combining immune cells grown in the lab with samples from a patient’s tumor. Like giving a…
In a new study, Mass General Brigham researchers explore the causes of immune aging, a barrier to successful cancer immunotherapy, and identify a gene that may serve as an age-related prognostic marker and potential target for future cancer therapies.
Increased exposure to pollen negatively affects the lung function of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a new study in the July 2026 issue of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation.
Researchers have created one of the most detailed maps to date of how white blood cells called B cells develop and behave inside melanoma tumors, a type of skin cancer. The study, led by King’s College London and published in the Journal of Experimenta…
Researchers have found a way to supercharge natural killer cells, powerful immune cells that can attack cancer, so they can penetrate solid tumors and keep fighting once inside. In mice, these specially prepared tissue-resident cells slowed the growth …
People who reach 110 and beyond appear to have unusually large numbers of rare immune cells capable of killing abnormal cells. These CD4 cytotoxic T cells became more common with age and often expanded into large groups of nearly identical cells, sugge…
Researchers in Purdue University’s College of Pharmacy have developed and validated a new series of small-molecule inhibitors that promote antitumor immunity and hold promise as anticancer agents.
Allergic rhinitis and asthma are among the most common chronic diseases today, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. One contributing factor is climate change, which is extending pollen seasons, increasing pollen in the air and potentiall…
Researchers at Columbia University have discovered a new type of cell that protects lung cancers from attacks by the immune system. The work, published in Nature Immunology, illuminates a previously unknown capability of lung tumors and suggests a new …
Cornell researchers successfully ramped up the body’s own immune response to fight melanoma at the tail end of targeted cancer therapy, when tumors commonly become resistant to these therapies and leave behind residual cancer cells that can lead to mor…
Imagine the body’s immune cells as a neighborhood cleanup crew. When all is healthy, macrophages roam tissues, clearing away cellular debris and helping maintain order. But obesity can turn these normally protective cells into drivers of chronic inflam…
Two identical mice experience the same deadly infection. One survives, while the other dies. Why? Scientists long thought the answer lay in the pathogen burden—the amount of harmful bacteria present in the body. They assumed that in the mice that died,…
A hormone already known for curbing appetite and supporting weight loss may have a surprising second job: protecting the liver from inflammation and scarring. Researchers at McMaster University found that GDF15 activates a previously unknown brain-to-l…
AI may be able to predict how strongly someone will respond to a vaccine before they receive it. By analyzing antibody patterns in more than 4,000 people, researchers found signs of “immune readiness” that helped distinguish strong responders from weak…
A compound made when gut bacteria break down dietary fiber may do more than briefly calm inflammation—it could leave a lasting protective “memory” in the gut. Northwestern Medicine researchers found that butyrate can reprogram intestinal lining cells s…
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that, according to the CDC, currently affects around 35,000 Americans—with 5,000 more diagnosed each year. Risk climbs with age, and treatments only slow progression. With no cure and a…
Bacteria in lung tumors may boost the activation of innate immune cells in the presence of a common vitamin metabolite, according to a preclinical study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for C…
Immunotherapy has transformed outcomes for many cancer patients. Unlike conventional treatments, these therapies do not attack tumors directly. Instead, they enable the body’s immune system to identify and kill cancer cells that had previously escaped …
University of Alabama researchers have found that a combination of an existing immunosuppressant drug and a compound derived from dietary sources showed greater benefit than either treatment alone in a preclinical model of lupus.
Vaccines protect most people from serious illness, but the strength of that protection can vary considerably from one person to another. A new study led by Arizona State University helps us understand why.
Innovative research led by a University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine professor whose lab focuses on mechanisms that maintain a healthy immune system has discovered that a gene best known for increasing the risk of Parkinson’s disease may also give the…
More than 1,000 genetic switches behave differently in male and female immune cells, helping explain why women are much more vulnerable to autoimmune diseases such as lupus. Female immune systems appear genetically tuned for stronger inflammatory respo…
In people with type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakenly destroys the pancreatic beta cells responsible for producing insulin. Patients therefore require lifelong insulin therapy to regulate their blood glucose levels.
Could AI hold the key to answering questions that have stumped doctors and scientists for decades? A recent study at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) borrows concepts from machine learning to address an age-old riddle of immunology.
The human immune system has specialized cells called CD4 cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CD4 CTLs), which have been shown to kill tumor cells in some cancers. When a person gets sick, these cells multiply in a process called clonal expansion to help fight inf…
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered lymph node-like structures in the skull bone marrow of mice for the first time and demonstrated that they act as rapid first responders against brain cancer before dis…
Age, genetics and lifestyle are known to influence how people respond to viral infections. Scientists also know that differences in immune responses play an important role, but exactly how these factors shape the course of an infection has remained unc…
As the immune system battles cancer, chronic stimulation gradually drives T cells to a state of exhaustion. But some of these exhausted T cells can lose expression of the exhaustion marker LAG3, move out of the tumor and confer long-lasting immunity to…
Crohn’s disease, a condition characterized by widespread inflammation in the gut, may arise from a weakened immune response, according to new research from the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
Immunotherapy has transformed cancer treatment, yet many tumors remain stubbornly resistant to its effects. Among the most challenging are “cold tumors,” including ovarian, breast and prostate cancers, which evade immune attack and respond poorly to ex…
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized cancer treatment, yet many colorectal tumors remain resistant. Even among patients who initially respond, more than half eventually develop resistance, highlighting the need to better understand how tumo…
A research group has revealed through studies in humans and mice that a subset of clear cell ovarian cancers, which have been considered difficult to treat with anticancer drugs and immunotherapy, responds to immunotherapy.
Despite widespread COVID-19 infection in the Tsimané and Moseten populations of Bolivia, the mortality rate in these remote Indigenous groups was the lowest ever recorded for any population or region.
Northwestern Medicine scientists have uncovered a previously hidden immune environment in the thymus that may help drive myasthenia gravis (MG), a chronic autoimmune disease that causes muscle weakness and fatigue, mainly affecting women younger than 4…
Unlike adult hearts, the hearts of newborn mammals can temporarily regenerate after damage. However, this remarkable ability is rapidly lost within the first days of life. In a new study, scientists investigated how neonatal hearts respond to both hear…
Obesity can weaken the immune system’s tumor-killing responses in lung cancer, leading to disease progression, but a new study by experts at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center reveals that exercise may reverse this effect.
The SARS-CoV-2 genome is subject to constant mutations. Some of these mutations reduce the effectiveness of RNA-based vaccines, which consequently have to be adapted regularly. Until now, however, it was unclear how the immune system reacts to new viru…
We usually think of bodily sensations as information the brain receives. What if the way we attend to those sensations can feed back and change the biological response itself?
For more than a decade, CAR-T cell therapy has been one of the biggest breakthroughs in cancer medicine. By reprogramming a patient’s own immune cells to attack cancer, doctors have produced remarkable results against certain blood cancers, offering ho…
Much of how genetic risk leads to disease has remained hidden. In many cases, genetic variants linked to disease do not act on nearby genes along the chromosome. Instead, they influence genes located far away along the DNA sequence. This happens becaus…
Immunotherapy that targets tumor-associated macrophages, a type of immune cell in the tumor microenvironment, works only if the cells have a functional system of molecules that enables them to respond to the treatment. This is shown in a new study from…
Biologic medicines have transformed the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases, migraine, inflammatory disorders and many other conditions. Yet their growing use among women of reproductive age constitutes a major clinical challenge because therapeut…
Outfitting cells in “invisibility cloaks” may offer an easier, less damaging treatment pathway for people with diabetes undergoing cell therapy, according to researchers at Penn State.
Researchers from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that helps cancer cells evade detection by the body’s immune system. The finding coul…
Antibodies are an important defense against SARS-CoV-2, but the virus continues to evolve ways to evade them. Now, researchers have mapped how antibodies target a key region of the virus’s spike protein, how they neutralize the virus and how emerging v…
Orange juice may have a much bigger effect on the body than scientists once realized. Drinking it regularly appears to influence genes tied to inflammation, blood pressure, metabolism, and blood sugar control, while studies have also found improvements…
For patients with blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, the immunotherapy known as CAR-T cell therapy can be lifesaving. Doctors remove a patient’s immune cells, called T cells, engineer them in the lab to better recognize and attack cancer, and in…
Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and Keck School of Medicine of USC have engineered a genetic tool that addresses one of the most persistent obstacles in cancer immunotherapy: the physical softness of tumors. The work, detailed in t…
Coronary artery disease, which is caused by plaque buildup in the arteries that supply blood to the heart, can appear stable for long periods without causing any symptoms. But the disease can become unstable at any time and cause a heart attack. Follow…
A new study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has shown that inflammatory arthritis occurring as a side effect of immune checkpoint inhibitors behaves like an immune-memory disease, suggesting that certain immune c…
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system reacts to gluten. More than 1% of the population in Germany is affected. In these individuals, gluten proteins found in wheat, rye and barley trigger inflammation in the small intestin…
Every day, billions of cells in our body die and are removed as part of normal tissue maintenance. This continuous cleanup process is essential for keeping the immune system in balance and preventing harmful immune reactions against healthy tissues. Re…
Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, in collaboration with investigators at the University of Chicago, have developed a new computational framework that helps scientists identify genes that play central roles in diseases …
New research led by the Hudson Institute of Medical Research has shown how a cell recognizes that it is infected with a virus to protect itself and surrounding cells or induce inflammation. The discovery, published in Nature Immunology and led by Dr. N…
Immunosuppressive medications help prevent organ rejection following transplantation, yet some patients still experience rejection despite receiving adequate treatment. New research from Yale, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, identif…
In a first-of-its-kind study by King’s College London, researchers have linked changes in two major types of immune cells in blood to different survival outcomes for patients with melanoma. Melanoma, the fifth most common cancer in the U.K., is one of …
Researchers at National Jewish Health and partner institutions have discovered specific changes in immune cells in the lungs of people with sarcoidosis. Their findings help explain how this inflammatory disease develops and could support the developmen…
The brain’s immune cells are increasingly recognized as key players in Alzheimer’s disease, but exactly how they change as the disease develops has remained unclear. A new study published in Nature Genetics provides the most comprehensive map to date o…
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system and remains a major global health challenge because of persistent viral reservoirs, despite effective treatments. Key factors include around 40 million people living wi…
A team led by researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the HI-STEM Stem Cell Institute, and Medical Clinic V at Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) has characterized T cells in the bone marrow of patients with multiple myeloma and a…
Europe is in the grip of yet another deadly heat wave. Over 10,000 excess deaths were recorded during late June 2026 alone—and the toll keeps climbing.
