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Pioneering gene therapy has long-lasting effects on children with deadly immune disorder

Over a decade ago, UCLA physician-scientists began using a pioneering gene therapy they developed to treat children born with a rare and deadly immune system disorder. They now report that the effects of the therapy appear to be long-lasting, with 90% of patients who received the treatment eight to 11 years ago still disease-free.

18 Oct 2021

New gel enhances immunotherapy's effectiveness in glioblastoma

Pairing a newly developed gel with immunotherapy that was delivered to post-surgical mouse brains with glioblastoma, a highly malignant and deadly cancer, improved the immunotherapy's effectiveness, report researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues.

7 Oct 2021

New study reveals lung cell roles in guiding the immune system

Lung immunity is essential to combat all pulmonary diseases, including COVID-19, pneumonia, lung cancer, asthma and COPD.

6 Oct 2021

Fully vaccinated people who had COVID-19 end up with larger number of memory B cells

A new study by University of Minnesota Medical School researchers is revealing that some people who received an mRNA vaccination for COVID-19 have greater immune responses compared to others.

5 Oct 2021

Study provides insights on how the human gut microbiota resist cholera bacterium

Cholera is still an enormous problem. An acute diarrheal disease, there have been seven major pandemics in the last two hundred years. According to the WHO, cholera still kills up to 143,000 people each year and infects up to 4 million others, mostly in poor or underdeveloped countries.

4 Oct 2021

Researchers develop novel antibacterial nanomaterial to treat skin infections

Researchers at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS (IOCB Prague) and the Technical University of Liberec in collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Microbiology of the CAS, the Department of Burns Medicine of the Third Faculty of Medicine at Charles University (Czech Republic), and P. J. Šafárik University in Košice (Slovakia) have developed a novel antibacterial material combining nonwoven nanotextile and unique compounds with antibacterial properties.

1 Oct 2021

Supercoiling and looping can transmit mechanical stress along the DNA backbone, shows study

When people think of DNA, they visualize a string-like double helix structure. In reality, the DNA double helix in cells is supercoiled and constrained into loops. This supercoiling and looping are known to influence every aspect of DNA activity, but how this happens has not been clear.

28 Sep 2021

Researchers identify host entry factor for Rift Valley fever virus

Rift Valley fever virus causes economically devastating outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever in livestock such as sheep, goats and cattle. These mosquito-borne outbreaks lead to infection in people working with dead or dying animals, sometimes causing hundreds of human cases and dozens of deaths.

24 Sep 2021

New Cornell study finds potential treatment for MRSA ‘superbug’

A new Cornell study has found the antimicrobial properties of certain stem cell proteins could offer a potential treatment to reduce infection in skin wounds.

17 Sep 2021

Eosinophils combat cancer metastases in the lungs, says research

Recent research at Tel Aviv University identified that eosinophils—a kind of white blood cells—are recruited for the fight against cancer metastases in the lungs.

15 Sep 2021

Study unravels the DNA repair mechanism by enzymes

A new study by researchers from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in the Republic of Korea has revealed the mechanism of DNA repair by enzymes exonuclease III and polymerase I by utilizing single molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET)-enabled dynamic observation.

14 Sep 2021

Newly identified antibacterial mechanism could inspire novel strategies to combat bacterial pathogens

Similar to how a spider traps its prey, the cells of the human immune system cooperate to trap and “eat” bacteria.

14 Sep 2021

Pairing microscopy with AI to develop a rapid, accurate COVID-19 test

Beckman researchers paired microscopy with artificial intelligence to develop a COVID-19 test that's fast, accurate, and cost-effective. All we need to do is say "ahh."

13 Sep 2021

UAB researchers identify an unnoticed additional site for priming of "killer" T cells

CD8+ T cells -; known as "killer" T cells -; are the assassins of the immune system. Once they are primed, they seek out and destroy other cells that are infected with virus or cells that are cancerous.

13 Sep 2021

Study reveals how autoimmune antibodies can predict severe cases of COVID-19

The presence of special immune system defense molecules, called autoimmune antibodies, has been strongly tied to how poorly people fare when hospitalized with COVID-19, a new study shows.

From New York University (NYU) 9 Sep 2021

Viruses buried in marsupials' DNA may help protect against future infections

Fossils of ancient viruses are preserved in the genomes of all animals, including humans, and have long been regarded as junk DNA. But are they truly junk, or do they actually serve a useful purpose?

From The University of New South Wales (UNSW) 9 Sep 2021

Gut bacteria may play a key role in neurological damage of premature infants

Extremely premature infants are at a high risk for brain damage. Researchers at the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna have now found possible targets for the early treatment of such damage outside the brain: Bacteria in the gut of premature infants may play a key role.

6 Sep 2021

Plant bulbs harboring lethal pathogen make the perfect lab for evolving drug-resistant strains

Just when we thought it was safe to go to the local garden center, researchers from Japan have discovered that fungicide-resistant strains of a nasty pathogen have been getting up to no good among the tulip bulbs.

6 Sep 2021

Experts decode the genetic mechanism governing the speed of mRNA translation

The genetic material of all eukaryotic organisms is stored in the cell nucleus in the form of DNA. The DNA is first transcribed into messenger RNA in the cell cytoplasm and later translated into protein using ribosomes for it to be used, where ribosomes are small machines capable of decoding messenger RNA to synthesize the relevant proteins.

1 Sep 2021

Researchers demonstrate efficacy of vaccine candidates for various filoviruses

The efficacy of multiple vaccine candidates that target three filoviruses responsible for life-threatening infections to humans has been demonstrated in monkeys.