Daily non-political popular news in brief.

Immune cell communication key to hunting viruses, Jefferson immunologists show

Immunologists have used nanotechnology to create a novel "biosensor" to solve in part a perplexing problem in immunology: how the immune system's killer T-cells hunt down invading viruses. They have found that surprisingly little virus can turn on killer T-cells, thanks to some complicated communication among "antigen presenting" proteins that recognize and attach to the virus, making it visible to the immune system. Presenting proteins cooperate, spreading a signal among receptors and boosting T-cell response.

Read more »

Keywords: immune, cell, communication, key, hunting, viruses, jefferson, immunologists, show, viruse, immunologist

« Previous | Next »

Similar news on "Immune cell communication key to hunting viruses, Jefferson immunologists show":

1. Researchers uncover more about how poxviruses evade the immune system
   01-31-2008 · EurekAlert!
   Scientists at St. Louis University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham have uncovered important new information about a key protein that allows viruses such as smallpox to replicate and wreak havoc on the immune system.
   Similar news · Read more »
   
2. UCSD researchers discover internal compass of immune cell
   12-14-2006 · EurekAlert!
   Researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine have discovered how neutrophils -- specialized white blood cells that play key roles in inflammation and in the body's immune defense against bacteria -- navigate to sites of infection and inflammation. These findings could potentially lead to new treatments for serious infections and inflammatory diseases in patients.
   Similar news · Read more »
   
3. Brown researchers make major signal transduction discovery
   10-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
   How cells sense and respond to chemical messages -- a process known as signal transduction -- is a fundamental force in biology, controlling key processes such as cell growth and immune response. Now researchers from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital report a significant discovery in the field of signal transduction that could provide a new target for drugs that fight cancer, HIV and diseases. Results are published in Cell.
   Similar news · Read more »
   
4. Immune cell age plays role in retinal damage in age-related macular degeneration
   11-01-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Studying a mouse model of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older Americans, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found age is key in determining whether damaging blood vessels will form beneath the retina and contribute to vision loss.
   Similar news · Read more »
   
5. Antioxidant overload may underlie a heritable human disease
   08-09-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Despite the popular notion that antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, offer health-promoting benefits by protecting against damaging free radicals, a new study in the Aug. 10 issue of the journal Cell reveals that, in fact, balance is the key. The researchers show in mice that an overload of natural antioxidants can actually lead the heart to failure.
   Similar news · Read more »
   
6. Enzyme synergy shown to perpetuate sleeping sickness
   10-18-2007 · EurekAlert!
   The pathogenesis of the parasite African trypanosome (T. brucei) has been linked to a key protein switch, detailed in a new study by researchers at the University of Iowa and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center of Iowa City, led by Dr. John Donelson. The study, published in PLoS Pathogens, explains how two enzymes enable the cell's surface to remodel itself in order to thwart the immune system of carrier tsetse flies.
   Similar news · Read more »
   
7. Targeting the adrenal gland could be key strategy against heart failure, Jefferson scientists show
   02-18-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Scientists have staved off heart failure in animals by using gene therapy to shut down the adrenal gland's excessive output of fight or flight hormones such as epinephrine and norepinephrine, which forces the heart to pump too hard. Such a novel approach -- targeting the adrenal gland in addition to the heart -- provides a potential new strategy against heart failure, and could lead to a new class of drugs.
   Similar news · Read more »
   
8. New protein inhibitor impedes growth of cancerous cells
   02-08-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Researchers have developed a small-molecule inhibitor of a protein that plays key roles in the control of cell division, and they show that the inhibitor can halt the growth of tumors in mice and cancer-derived cells growing in culture.
   Similar news · Read more »
   
9. Glue inside the cell
   10-19-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Ubiquitin is a small protein, which can be attached to other cellular proteins. A study headed by the Junior Group of Dr. Daniel Krappmann (GSF - National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Toxicology) in collaboration with Dr. Jürgen Ruland (TU Munich) and Dr. Claus Scheidereit (Max-Delbrück-Center , Berlin) now reports a novel finding about ubiquitination as a key event for the activation of an immune response.
   Similar news · Read more »
   
10. Jefferson neuroscientists show anti-inflammation molecule helps fight MS-like disease
    11-11-2007 · EurekAlert!
    An immune system messenger molecule that normally helps quiet inflammation could be an effective tool against multiple sclerosis. Neurology researchers at Jefferson Medical College have found that the protein interkeukin-27 (IL-27) helped block the onset or reverse symptoms in animals with an MS-like disease. The results suggest that IL-27 may someday be part of a therapy to temper over-active immune responses, which are thought to be at the heart of MS.
    Similar news · Read more »