Rheumatology News and Research

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Rheumatology is a sub-specialty in internal medicine and pediatrics, devoted to the diagnosis and therapy of rheumatic diseases. Rheumatologists mainly deal with clinical problems involving joints, soft tissues and allied conditions of connective tissues.

The Role of Macrophages in Shaping the Inflammatory Environment in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Currently there are no cures for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) which affects 40,000 people in Ireland. The disease costs an estimated €20,000 per patient, per year with an overall cost to the health system of ~€544 million. Only 1 in 4 patients achieve remission and a significant proportion of patients have suboptimal responses or no response at all to current available therapies.

30 Sep 2024

New Insights into ILC2 Development Could Lead to Innovative Therapies for Allergic Diseases

Scientists have discovered a novel mechanism of ILC2 immune cell development which may be involved in exacerbating allergic diseases.

11 Jul 2024

Impact of Rare Disease Mutation Could Extend to More Prevalent Conditions

REX1 is a gene that is meant to direct the maintenance of the entire body’s DNA, but new research shows that when people are born with mutated TREX1, the DNA suffers catastrophic damage over time, resulting in a deadly rare disease known as retinal vasculopathy with cerebral leukoencephalopathy (RVCL).

5 Jun 2024

How Glucocorticoids Quell Inflammation

Cortisone and other related glucocorticoids are extremely effective at curbing excessive immune reactions.

13 Apr 2024

Uncovering the Role of Faulty Signalling in Immune Cell Development

An autoimmune disease occurs when the body’s own cells are attacked by the immune system in addition to external pathogens.

16 Jan 2024

How Next-Gen Sequencing is Revolutionizing Infection Diagnosis

Scientists from Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital (AP-HP), the Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Inserm, Université Paris-Est Créteil and the Alfort National Veterinary School, coordinated by Professor Marc Eloit and Dr. Anne Jamet in collaboration with Dr. Jacques Fourgeaud and Beatrice Regnault, studied the role of global genetic characterization of samples (or non-targeted metagenomics) using next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in diagnosing infections.

19 Dec 2023

New Data Shows Gene Expression at Different Stages of Pregnancy

While the exterior features of a woman can alter throughout pregnancy, scientists are surprisingly ignorant about the interior biological changes that take place.

14 Jun 2023

Understanding How Interleukin-6 Contributes to Suppress Allergic Asthma and Atopy

The immune system has a biological telecommunications system -; small proteins known as interleukins that send signals among the leukocyte white blood cells to control their defense against infections or nascent cancer.

8 May 2023

Investigating the potential cellular effects of C-reactive protein

The biological function of the C-reactive protein, CRP, has long been unidentified. Investigators at LiU have discovered that this protein has a useful function in the inflammatory disease systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE.

10 Mar 2023

Pentamer shape of C-reactive protein can suppress the immune response in inflammatory disease

The biological function of the C-reactive protein, CRP, has long been unknown. Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden now show that this protein has a beneficial function in systemic lupus erythematosus, SLE, an inflammatory disease.

9 Mar 2023

A critical subset of supporting cells may lie at the origins of scleroderma

Supporting actors sometimes steal the show. In a new study published today in Cell, researchers headed by Prof. Ido Amit at the Weizmann Institute of Science have shown that supporting cells called fibroblasts, long viewed as uniform background players, are in fact extremely varied and vital.

5 Apr 2022

Placenta plays an active role in the delivery of maternal vitamin D to the fetus

Scientists have shed new light on the role of the placenta in managing the relationships between maternal vitamin D and fetal development, according to a study published today in eLife.

9 Mar 2022

Study helps identify how immune system cells identify and eradicate tumors

In the last 10 years, immunotherapy has been used to save the lives of several cancer patients with lung cancer.

13 Dec 2021

'Rewiring' the mitochondria in macrophages can resolve inflammatory reactions

New data from a research team at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg shows how inflammatory reactions can be resolved by changes to the metabolism of macrophages.

8 Nov 2021

Research identifies an unnoticed site for priming of CD8+ T cells—the spleen

CD8+ T cells, also called “killer” T cells, are the killers of the immune system. Upon being primed, they look for and kill cancerous cells or virus-infected cells.

14 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

Genetically engineered cells deliver drugs in response to inflammation

With a goal of developing rheumatoid arthritis therapies with minimal side effects, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have genetically engineered cells that, when implanted in mice, will deliver a biologic drug in response to inflammation.

2 Sep 2021