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In an evolutionary arms race with its host rabbits, the virus has evolved the deadly ability to suppress the rabbit's immune system. Credit: Kansas State University

In a classic example of the evolutionary arms race between a host and a pathogen, the myxoma virusintroduced to control the rabbit population in Australia in 1950has developed a novel and deadly ability to suppress the immune response of its host rabbits. New research shows that viruses collected in the 1990s are much more effective at shutting down the immune systems of rabbits that have never been exposed to the virus than are viruses from the 1950s.

"When a host develops resistance to a virus, the virus will often evolve ways to evade the host's immune response," said Andrew Read, Evan Pugh Professor of Biology and Entomology and Eberly Professor of Biotechnology at Penn State and an author of the study. "Instead of hiding from the rabbit's immune response, the myxoma virus has evolved ways to directly suppress it, leading to the development of a virus that is even more deadly to non-resistant rabbits."

A paper describing the new study appears the week of August 14, 2017, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research suggests that efforts to artificially increase resistance to a virus through selective breeding, genetic engineering, or immunizationunless they completely prevent transmission of the viruscould accelerate the arms race, producing even more virulent viruses.

Wild European rabbits were introduced to Australia in the 19th century and quickly spread, wreaking havoc on the land and devastating crops. The myxoma virus was initially extremely effective in reducing the population of these invaders. The strain of virus that was introduced developed in a different species of rabbit in South America. Scientists at the time were interested in understanding how the virus would evolve in this new, European, host.

"This system has been studied since the 1950s as a classic example of an evolutionary arms race," said Peter Kerr of the University of Sydney, Australia and lead author of the paper. "The rabbits evolved resistance, the virus evolved ways to combat that resistance, and this continued in a back-and-forth, ever escalating way. We wanted to know how that arms race has continued since it was last studied in the early 1980s."

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The research team compared viruses collected in the 1990s to the original strain introduced to Australia in 1950. "We can compare how nasty a virus is in what we call a 'common garden'," said Read. "In this case, laboratory rabbits that have not been exposed to myxoma virus provide that common gardenthey have not developed resistance to mxyomatosis so we can compare how they respond to viruses from different eras."

Many of the viruses from the 1990s were extremely virulent, but the laboratory rabbits infected with them did not develop the usual symptoms associated with myxoma infection, including skin lesions and high fever. Instead, these rabbits developed a profound immune system depression, leading to massive bacterial infection and acute collapse syndrome, similar to sepsis.

"The rabbits infected with virus from the 1990s did not have a typical inflammatory response to the infection or develop fevers," said Isabella Cattadori, associate professor of biology at Penn State and an author of the paper. "This is further evidence that the virus is severely suppressing the immune response in these rabbits. The evolutionary arms race has produced a virus that instead of trying to evade the host's immune response, directly attacks it."

Although the original strain of myxoma virus introduced to Australia in the 1950s had some ability to suppress its host's immune system, this ability has increased over time and the acute collapse syndrome that it causes developed sometime after the studies in the 1980s.

"Our study shows that the evolutionary arms race between an infectious agent and its host's immune system can continue to escalate to produce new more dangerous viruses," said Read. "We need to be aware of this in areas like agriculture, and even human vaccinations, where we are artificially enhancing resistance. If our methods do not completely prevent transmission of the viruses we could be accelerating the evolution of more deadly viruses."

Explore further: A real Peter Rabbit tale: Biologists find key to myxoma virus / rabbit coevolution

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Viruses up their game in arms race with immune system - Phys.Org

Todays oil and gas industry is no stranger to cyber attacks. The 2012 hack of Saudi Aramco during which the oil giants computer network was almost completely compromised, forcing staff to resort to typewriters and faxes for months and sending company executives on buying sprees for hard drives could have easily bankrupted a smaller organisation. And all it took was one click on a bad link in a scam e-mail.

Given the risks involved in an increasingly IT-driven industry that operates in a safety-critical environment and which is high on the target list for malicious or geopolitically inspired attackers, the industry has woken up to the importance of cyber security, and its suppliers are responding. In May, industrial giant Siemens announced a new partnership with innovative cyber security firm Darktrace to help bring the latters AI-driven Industrial Immune System technology to customers in the utilities and oil and gas industries.

By combining Darktraces digital tech with Siemenss operational technology (OT) security expertise and strong industry presence, the partners are hoping to offer a comprehensive solution for oil and gas companies. We caught up with Darktrace director of technology Dave Palmer to discuss cyber risks to offshore oil firms, and how sophisticated cyber security systems can help secure their most sensitive infrastructure.

Dave Palmer: I guess you can think of the majority of the cyber security industry as being preventative. So most things on the market have an awareness of previously seen attacker techniques, and they work in different ways to try and block them, which is a perfectly reasonable idea. And on top of that, theres a much smaller number of products out there that try to detect the things that have gotten past your defences. But often its based on the same idea, so its really doing the same thing again, just having another look for what previously known attacks have looked like. Unsurprisingly thats not super-successful, because if something was different enough or novel enough to get past the defences in the first place, then its probably not going to get picked up by using the same idea again.

So in order to do better at picking up an in-progress attack, we just flipped the idea around, so instead of having an awareness of what attacks are like, lets learn what the normal business is like, lets learn about all the different people and devices, whether its something as common as a laptop or an iPhone, or a completely bespoke piece of machinery that doesnt exist in any other pipeline or manufacturing system in the world. What that means for the attackers, then, is if they want a successful attack, they have to be clever enough to get past all the existing defensive systems that are in place, but they cant look different at all from the way the normal business operates, otherwise well pick them up. Those two ideas side-by-side are incredibly powerful.

CL: How did the partnership with Siemens come about? Is it useful to have a very established partner like Siemens when introducing your services to a famously cautious industry?

DP: Of course, Siemens is such a massive part of this sector. I think, really, we caught their attention. Rather than ringing them up every week and saying, Hey, this is a great idea, you should try it, we worked really hard on proving the idea again and again with Siemens customers. So because weve got that self-learning aspect, we never needed to do a partnership in advance of being able to work with Siemens customers because the system would just learn and operate successfully.

CL: What work have you been doing to integrate Darktrace and Siemens services and technologies to create a single, comprehensive solution?

DP: I guess there are two strands. Theres basically a go-to-market piece, where Siemens are basically helping us describe and advertise to their customers how they can get some of the benefits from Darktrace and what that would really mean in a Siemens-type environment. And thats pretty classic for us; its what weve been doing for a few years now, but its great to have their support and great to have them continuing to inform us of what would be useful for their customers.

But Im also really excited about their push into offering cyber security as a service, and Darktrace is going to be a cornerstone of that managed service that theyre going to provide. Repeating the mistakes of the IT industry, where weve tried to get every small law firm and mid-size business in the world to become cyber security experts, isnt particularly helpful.

CL: As well as onshore data centres and the like, is there an increasing cyber risk to upstream facilities such as offshore production platforms?

DP: Whats interesting from my perspective is the vast geo-survey data, sensing data information collection that goes on in all sorts of formats, whether its [a] satellite or stuff being towed through the ocean or distributed sensors being put over land to generate views, of course, of where there might be resources under the surface that are worth going after. If you make decisions worth potentially tens or hundreds of millions of pounds based on relatively small pieces of information that have ended up in your data centre, its worth thinking about the whole information supply chain, where that data has come from and how it might have been manipulated along the way.

If I was a bad person and I really wanted to try and increase harm against your organisation, I would attack your view of the world I would make your view of the world incorrect, and essentially try to influence you into buying drilling rights in the wrong places, and I would do far more monetary harm to your organisation than I would by powering off an oil rig for three days.

CL: What are the main challenges involved in securing oil and gas infrastructure that is complex and geographically widespread?

DP: I think the primary challenge is that in a lot of businesses, its okay to interrupt things on the basis that its better to stop it and then assess whether that was okay or not, than it is to let it continue. Of course, in safety-critical environments, you dont want to be just randomly stopping strange stuff happening in the environment, because the reason why that anomaly has occurred might be because someones just pressed the emergency stop button, and the last thing you want is your cyber defences preventing a safety-critical system from operating.

That said, I think what were seeing in the industry is a faster breakout from data and information and controls being in the OT to coming back into just being corporate. So rather than extending OT networks deeper into the onshore world, what were seeing is that OT networks are more quickly offloading whatever they need to say or do, or the information they need to pass on, into conventional IT and then were back on to nice, non-safety-critical ground.

CL: How important is it to secure buy-in and educate offshore/onshore staff on the fundamentals of cyber security?

DP: Most of the things that go wrong and become cyber security incidents start off with someone either making a mistake that results in a weakness, or because someones been tricked into trusting something that they shouldnt. Because while there is of course technical cleverness in what goes on from the bad guys, frankly a lot of it is whats now nicknamed social engineering, or just taking advantage of the psychology of us all as people who trust our colleagues around us, and people that would get used to seeing things on our own screen and naturally trusting it and having a bias towards it. Its definitely not like the movies where its just people punching through firewalls anymore. That kind of era is over.

CL: What kind of early feedback or interest have you received from the oil and gas industry since you announced the partnership with Siemens?

DP: Its been pretty good so far; were lucky to have a few oil and gas customers that speak well of us to their colleagues in the sector. To be honest, whats really bringing people to us is two things. One, they know theyre really struggling with their own complexity. So we try not to pitch ourselves by saying, Its you versus the hackers. We try very much to explain that for most businesses, its the security team just trying to get their heads around everything that theyve got and what might happen. You can almost stop thinking about the hackers in that regard.

See more here:
How an AI-driven industrial immune system could protect oil & gas from cyber attacks - Offshore Technology

Broadcast, print and online journalists are to begin using an automated fact-checking system that quickly alerts them to false claims made in the press, on TV and in parliament.

An early version of the system, dubbed the bullshit detector by its creators, will be rolled out for testing from October as part of a global fightback against fake news.

It is being developed by researchers at the Full Fact organisation in London with $500,000 (380,000) of funding from charitable foundations backed by two billionaires: the Hungarian-born investor George Soros, and the Iranian-American eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

The software, which was demonstrated to the Guardian, scans statements as they are made by politicians and instantly provides a verdict on their veracity. An early version relies on a database of several thousand manual fact-checks, but later versions will automatically access official data to inform the verdict. The researchers are co-operating with the Office of National Statistics on the project.

The Full Fact program will be first tested in the UK but will also be deployed in South America and Africa, where Kenyas presidential election campaign has been beset by fake news such as bogus BBC and CNN news reports using fabricated polls to overstate the prospects of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

In London, Full Fact is working with Chequeado, an Argentina-based fact-checking organisation, and Africa Check, which operates in several sub-Saharan countries, including Nigeria and South Africa.

It is like trying to build an immune system, says Mevan Babakar, project manager at Full Fact in London. As more information goes out into the world that is wrong, what we dont have is the means of pushing back against that.

The early version of the software scans the subtitles of live news programmes, broadcasts of parliament, the Hansard parliamentary record, and articles published by newspapers. It tracks millions of words sentence by sentence until it identifies a claim that appears to match a fact-check already in its database.

The Guardian witnessed a real-time demonstration during a health debate in parliament. Words spoken by the politicians were underlined if they matched an existing fact-check. For example, the claim that in the last six years of the last Labour government, 25,000 hospital beds were cut flags a fact-check from the database that states: Correct, the number of overnight beds in the English NHS actually fell by slightly more about 26,000 between 2003-04 and 2009-10.

Another claim, that 10,000 more NHS nursing training places had been made available is also flagged: Incorrect. This figure refers to the governments ambition for additional places by 2020 on nursing, midwifery and child health courses.

In another version of the software, the fact-checks pop up on the TV screen as politicians are speaking, giving viewers instant verdicts on politicians claims. The experience of watching political debate programmes like BBCs Question Time could be transformed.

The developers want to expand the program so that it carries out its own fact-checks by using databases of statistics and verified information. Work is also under way to give Twitter and Facebook users the chance to fact-check their social media feeds, where the large majority of the worst fake news has been distributed.

This is an important investment in the future of fact-checking, says Stephen King, the Omidyar Networks global lead on governance and citizen engagement. These tools will expand the reach and impact of fact-checkers around the world, ensuring citizens are properly informed and those in positions of power are held accountable.

However, Babakar is keen to stress the limitations of the system so far and believes the tool should only be used by journalists in the first instance rather than the general public.

If we go straight to the public it will pit us against people wanting quick answers who wont be satisfied because we cant always make the answers small, she said. It is to help the journalist better push back, for example by challenging politicians at a press conference rather than going back to their desk and researching the claims. This way you can challenge the claim straight away. That is really important for public debate.

The fledgling system is not without its problems; sometimes it flags up a fact-check that isnt relevant, for example. The challenge for the programmers is to get the software to understand the fuzzy logic and idiom used so often in speech.

Neither is Babakar comfortable with the idea that the system separates the true from the false, especially since fake has become associated with information people dislike rather than which is objectively false.

I have a problem with the word truth because that means different things to different people, said Babakar. I think things are correct or incorrect. A truth can be personal. People may say crime is rising because it is in their area but the national average may be falling.

The softwares aim is not to offer people conclusions, but instead provide the best available evidence, Babakar says.

Original post:
Journalists to use 'immune system' software against fake news - The Guardian

The study was also supported by Diabetes UK and JDRF, the type 1 diabetes charity.

Dr Elizabeth Robertson, Director of Research at Diabetes UK, the charity who supported the lead author of the study, said: "Diabetes UK is committed to increasing our understanding of the immune attack in type 1 diabetes and finding ways to stop it.

These new findings are an exciting step towards immunotherapies being used to prevent this serious condition from developing in those at high risk, or stop it from progressing in those already diagnosed."

Prof Colin Dayan from Cardiff University, the clinical Chief Investigator for the study, added: "It was encouraging to see that people who receive the treatment needed less insulin to control their blood glucose levels, suggesting that their pancreas was working better.

Karen Addington, UK Chief Executive of JDRF which funded the research, said: "Exciting immunotherapy research like this increases the likelihood that one day insulin-producing cells can be protected and preserved.

That would mean people at risk of Type 1 diabetes might one day need to take less insulin, and perhaps see a future where no one would ever face daily injections to stay alive."

The research was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Originally posted here:
Immune systems of type 1 diabetics can be 'retrained' to stop destroying insulin, scientists show - Telegraph.co.uk

The white blood cells known as T cells regulate our bodys response to foreign substances our adaptive immune response. In a new study, Yale scientists have learned how changes in a recently discovered RNA epigenetic marker regulate T cells and the immune response. Their finding could lead to new approaches to treating autoimmune diseases.

The Yale-led research team focused on an important genetic marker, m6A, which modifies RNA. Prior to this study, it was known that m6A affected RNA and stem cells, but its role in biology was not understood. To investigate, the researchers deleted one of the genes that produce m6A in T cells, and tested m6A-deficient mice using various mice disease models.

The researchers found that the m6A-deficient T cells lost the ability to differentiate, or further develop into specialized immune cells; thus the cells were unable to cause autoimmune disease. The authors further revealed detailed molecular pathways that undermine T cell differentiation, which could have a profound impact on the research field, they said.

The finding provides new insight into this genetic markers role in development and human health. It also points to the potential for developing drugs to target m6A to alleviate autoimmune diseases, said first author and immunobiologist Huabing Li.

The research was led by Sterling Professor of Immunobiology, Richard Flavell, and is an international collaboration including researchers from China (Zhinan Yin, Jiyu Tong), Stanford University (Howard Y. Chang, Pedro Batista), and Yale (Matthew D. Simon, Erin Duffy, Yuval Kluger, Jun Zhao, Shu Zhu, Will Baillis, Lina Kroehling).

Read the full paper in Nature.

Read more from the original source:
Study describes key RNA epigenetic marker's role in immune ... - Yale News

When you look at health news right now, it feels like every other headline is either a warning about the next rare disease or a tale about how flourishing gut bacteria is the secret to happiness. So should we all embrace the world's dirt, walking around barefoot in the mud, or live in spacesuits with a bottle of bleach at the ready? The very fact that we still use the word germs to describe bacteria, viruses, parasites, and whatever just attached itself to your shoe in the airport bathroom is probably one source of our collective confusion. We went in search of the answers to these seemingly conflicting reports about pathogens.

In utero, babies have rather weak, incomplete immune systems. This is probably so they can peacefully coexist with their mothers' bodies but also because in the womb, they have little exposure to bacteria. The good gut microbiotaa.k.a. the reason everyone pretends to like kombuchafirst comes from the birth canal and then everything babies are exposed to afterward. Their memory T-cells (the white blood cells that kill antigens) are also a blank slate until they've had something to fight and "learn" from.

"From the moment babies are born, they interact with the environment and come into contact with all kinds of germs," says William Shaffner, M.D., an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. "We live in a very germy world. This interaction with the germy world actually results in protection of children against all kinds of infections."

There's also evidence that exposure to microbes prevents children from developing allergies. You may have heard of the study in Sweden that indicates kids whose parents immediately sanitized dropped pacifiers were more likely to have asthma, eczema, and allergies than the children whose parents licked the pacifiers clean. (Were just going to assume the parents who sucked on that dirt are doing well too.)

A few unsettling facts: While some bacteria are part of our immune system, there are, of course, plenty of others that are deadlyand becoming deadlier as they grow resistant to antibiotics. According to the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (commissioned by the U.K. Department of Health), at least 700,000 people across the world die each year of bacterial infections, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS as a direct result of drug-resistant bacteria. The WHO says that 480,000 people in the world develop drug-resistant TB each year.

While not usually fatal, the norovirus (that nasty bug we usually call the stomach flu) is so highly contagious, it takes just 18 viral particles to make one person ill, and the virus lives on in an infected person's stool for two weeks. Herpes simplex type-1 (oral herpes) can be passed to a child simply by pinching her cheek. Also, 20 percent of sexually active adults have herpes simplex type-2.

In July, a 3-week-old baby made headlines when she tragically died from complications of viral meningitis after contracting herpes, probably from someone who kissed her when she was a week old at her parents' wedding.

"What I will say about viral meningitis in infants is that this issue is now super, super rare," Shaffner says. "A much more common cause of serious disease in children that can actually kill them is influenza."

In the United States, influenza and pneumonia are one of the leading causes of death (ranking eighth overall in 2014).

"The recommendation is to give every child an influenza vaccine," Shaffner says. "It will provideif not completecertainly partial protection. Also, moms and dads should be comforted that the lights are on in the research laboratories at night. People keep working to develop a better flu vaccine and other mechanisms of protection for our children." In case you've forgotten, vaccines are good for us all.

"You don't have to spray every computer keyboard with disinfectant, which will ruin it anyway," Shaffner says. "And you don't have to worry about picking up a phone or a dollar bill. You're not going to get killed from that. A few years ago, one of the most common questions I got was, 'What can you pick up from a public toilet seat?' The answer is nothing. That's not a risk. If it were, we wouldn't have public toilets."

Even though places like public restrooms are basically petri dishes for bacteria and viruses, in most cases, all you have to do is wash your hands to be rid of them.

Though they seem ridiculously obvious, think twice the next time you want to laugh at the handwashing instructions you see at restaurants and medical offices. They save lives. The official recommendation from the CDC is to wet your hands first; lather them up with regular (nonantibacterial) soap, being sure to get under fingernails and between fingers, for the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice; rinse; and dry.

The FDA denounced antibacterial soap as useless at best and, at worst, potentially responsible for making bacteria more drug resistant. Hand sanitizer, however, is still your second-best friend after soap and water. It doesn't get rid of dirt or kill all germsnorovirus, for example, may stick aroundbut it's better than nothing when you aren't near a sink.

"My wife always has a small bottle of hand hygiene liquid in her purse; I have one in the glove compartment of my car," Shaffner says. "And then my wife has a simple rule in our house: You walk in the front door, hang up your coat and then go directly to the sink and wash your hands. Simple rules like that really are the great protection."

So unzip your bubble and the next time you read scary health news, just remember the lyrics to Happy Birthday.

Sabrina Rojas Weiss lives in Brooklyn, surrounded by her fellow freelance writers and competitive stroller-pushers. Her work has appeared on Refinery29, Yahoo, MTV News, and Glamour.com. Follow her on Twitter @shalapitcher.

Original post:
So What Exactly Is the Deal With Germs and Your Immune System? - Greatist

It may have something to do with the hygiene hypothesis, say experts at the Cleveland Clinic. That means that effects of such parasitic worm infections might actually protect your gut.

Goj and his team settled on the pig whipworm for their product, since the parasite cant survive for long in humansand there was no evidence of them being able to reproduce in our guts. So theyre unlikely to cause any of the downsides associated with other worms.

There's actually some evidence to back this up. In fact, a small 2004 study in Gut of 29 people with active Crohns diseasea type of inflammatory bowel conditionfound that ingesting pig whipworm eggs every three weeks for 24 weeks decreased their symptom severity. The researchers say it shows that the worms can hamper inflammation in your intestines, and suggest they may be beneficial for other immune conditions as well.

But according to New Scientist, Gojs larger, placebo-controlled study on whipworms was stopped early, because a monitoring committee failed to see beneficial results within three months.

Still, his products have already been approved for sale in Thailand, and they're currently pending approval in Germany. Since its only awaiting approval as a food ingredient and not a medical drug, its creators dont have to prove that it works for those immune conditionsonly that its safe for people to take.

Even though they may be approved as a food product, that definitely doesnt mean you should start self-medicating with worms yourself.

Self-medication with any type of worm is not recommended and it is important to remember theyre not in any way completely harmless, and may cause quite severe side effects if not monitored very carefully by a doctor, Helena Helmby, Ph.D., of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine told New Scientist.

More research is needed to test how worm eggs may function as treatment for other immune-related conditions. In the meantime, try these 9 foods that will boost your immune system instead. (For more health news, sign up for our Daily Dose newsletter.)

See more here:
Would You Eat Parasitic Worm Eggs To Improve Your Health? - Men's Health

In an Australian-first clinical trial leukaemia and lymphoma patients will have access to potentially life-saving immunotherapy treatment.

Nikola Barac, 6, with his mother Fiona Stamenkovic and brother Milan outside Westmead Institute for Medical Research. Photo: Jessica Hromas

Nikola Barac's immune system has done him no favours. Leukaemia and rare genetic immunodeficiency disorder hyper IgM have left his small body defenceless against life-threatening infections.

"I'd have a heart attack every time he had bathwater in his mouth," his mother Fiona Stamenkovic said.

"I would use boiled water to brush his teeth. We had to be very careful."

When Nikola was four years old, and in spite of his family's constant vigilance, an ultrasound picked up the parasite cryptosporidium in his bile ducts and liver.

"It was just devastating," Ms Stamenkovic said.

"I knew what it meant. I thought his liver was going to fail and he would die."

Nikola received two bone marrow transplants from his younger brother, Milan, to fight the infection. It worked, but another insidious virus called cytomegalovirus had flourished in its place.

"The medication he needed was very toxic. It was horrible giving it to him [knowing it could cause him harm]," Nikola's mother said. This time the treatment didn't work.

In a last-ditch move, Nikola's doctors weaponised the very thing that had failed to protect him in the first place. He was given two rounds of genetically-modified T-cell immunotherapy grown in Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR).

This time he was given the all clear.

"It's incredible. This thing has been a part of our lives for so long and now it's not. It's going to take a while to get used to it," Ms Stamenkovic said.

For the first time in Australia a clinical trial is paving the way for patients with leukaemia and lymphoma to access a potentially-life-saving immunotherapy treatment.

A team of researchers at WIMR and Westmead Hospital has been given the go ahead by the Therapeutics Goods Administration to conduct a phase 1 trial.

Launched on Tuesday, the CARTELL trial will recruit 20 leukaemia and lymphoma patients, children and adults, whose disease has returned despite having bone marrow transplants.

The chance of survival for these patients at five years is roughly 10 per cent.

Immunotherapy has become a promising new frontier in cancer treatment that harnesses the power of the immune system to find and attack cancer cells has yielded remarkable results in clinical trials overseas.

"The results have been incredible, there is no other way to describe it," said Professor David Gottleib, group leader of the Bone Marrow Transplant and Cell Therapies Group at WIMR and senior physician at Westmead Hospital.

"People have been blown away by the amazing response rates in people with leukaemia who had very few other choices," he said of the research field still in its infancy.

A small number of eligible Australian cancer patients have spent an estimated $500,000 - $700,000 to access treatment in US trials, on top of the cost of travel, hospital accommodation costs for themselves and their support people.

Professor David Gottleib at the Westmead Institute of Medical Research. Photo: Supplied

The exorbitant cost and limited trial places means the experimental treatment is beyond their reach for most patients.

"The long term goal is to make CAR T-cells affordable and widely accessible to Australian patients as quickly as we can," Professor Gottleib said.

"But there is still a long way to go before we can regard it as routine."

Trial participants will receive genetically modified donor T-cells fitted with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) that can identify and kill cancerous leukaemic and lymphoma cells.

Published trials overseas have used a viral system to insert the receptors into the cells, stripping away the dangerous components of a virus. The exhaustive process to ensure the alter virus is safe costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But the method used in the Australian trial will bypass the viral delivery system, Professor Gottleib said.

"We essentially take two pieces of DNA and cut and paste the receptor into the DNA," he said.

"It means we'll be able to manufacture the cells quickly and more affordably."

The technique could reduce the cost of commercial T-cell treatment from roughly $300,000 to about $50,000, he said.

But it will need to be rigorously tested.

"We don't know the answer to the efficacy question. That's why we're doing the trials," Professor Gottleib said.

"But how you get the receptor into the cells, one has no reason to think the end results should be different," he said.

The researchers will be on high alert for side effects seen in trials overseas, including the potentially fatal cytokine release syndrome, in which the T-cells become overactivated and release inflammatory chemicals that damage healthy cells.

The treatment can also cause neurotoxicity that damages the nervous system, which can cause confusion, memory loss, convulsions and other cognitive dysfunctions.

"We'll definitely be looking for those sorts of problems," Professor Gottleib said.

The new trial is part of a series of trials conducted by the WIMR researchers, aimed at strengthening immunity to infection in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and other toxic treatments.

They hope to apply for a second trial using participant's own T-cells to create the CARs among leukaemia and lymphoma patients who have not responded to chemotherapy.

The CARTELL trial is expected to run for 18 months to two years.

Patients who may be interested in participating in the trial should speak to their GP or specialist about their suitability.

The story How an experimental therapy weaponised Nikola's failing immune system first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

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How an experimental therapy weaponised Nikola's failing immune system - Illawarra Mercury

Mobilizing the forces of the immune system to the fight has changed the game of cancer treatment in recent years.

The key to success has been first identifying how cancer cells disarm the T-cell fighters of the immune system and then finding drugs to restore their firepower.

Using drugs called checkpoint inhibitors, patients with incurable cancers like advanced melanoma have shown long-term responses.

Forty percent of melanoma patients will still fail to respond to the treatment, however, which means that cancer cells must have other means ones that are not addressed by checkpoint inhibitors to disable the immune systems weaponry.

To discover what they are, a research team led by Nicholas Restifo at the US National Cancer Institute began with human melanoma cells growing in a dish, and systematically disabled every gene in the melanoma cells using the CRISPR gene-editing technique.

They then tested the ability of the T-cells fighters to recognize each one. It turned out about 100 different genes activated by the cancer were able to prevent the attack by the T-cells.

Of particular interest was a gene called APLNR. While it has been implicated as contributing to some cancers, this was the first evidence that it played a role in disarming T-cells.

If we can truly understand mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy, we might be able to develop new therapeutics, comments Restifo.

The research is published in Nature.

Link:
The cancer genes that disarm the immune system | Cosmos - Cosmos

After decades with little progress, cancer researchers have made major breakthroughs in the last few years in treatingmelanoma(the most serious type of skin cancer). The key to these advances?Immunotherapy is helping patients live longer.

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Chemotherapy which is typically a first-line treatment targets cancers directly. But immunotherapy spurs your immune system to attack cancer cells. This approach can offer new hope if you have melanoma.

Researcher and plastic surgeon Brian Gastman, MD, works with the latest advances in using immunotherapy to treat melanoma. He explains how they work.

One of the newest options is injectinga modified form of the herpes virus directly into the tumor, Dr. Gastman says.

This modified virus is called talimogene laherparepvec, or T-VEC.Once doctors inject it, the virus replicates within the cancer cells and causes them to rupture and die.

Doctors use T-VEC to treat melanoma at the skin level, under the skin or in deep soft tissues, he says.

One of the main reasons we give T-VEC is for whats called in-transit metastases, Dr. Gastman says.

He explains, Lets say someone had a melanoma in their foot. Typically, it would spread from the foot to the lymph nodes and from the lymph nodes all over the body.

But sometimes cancer cells get caught between the original site and the lymph nodes and cause little satellite lesions, he says. Those are in-transit metastases.

If its on the arm or leg, you can inject the arm or leg with chemotherapy and it will kill the cancer, but it will also damage the arm or leg, Dr. Gastman says.

T-VEC offers several advantages over chemotherapy in this situation:

Doctors still use ipilimumab, the first immunotherapy drug used to disrupt the growth and spread of cancer, for high-risk patients, but mostly as a help to other treatments. Its sometimes used alongside or after the initial treatment, Dr. Gastman says.

In this case, patients receive a high dose of ipilimumab after surgery to help prevent the cancer from coming back. Its significant because it is helping patients live longer, he says.

This is the first time that an adjuvant (helper) therapy showed an improvement in survival rates over a placebo, he says.

T-VEC and the new use for ipilimumab are the two major advances the FDA approved in recent years. Theres also a lot of exciting research happening, too, Dr. Gastman says.

Now, another immunotherapy drug called Pembrolizumab is being used a lot, he says. In 2016, there was data showing that 40 percent of stage IV melanoma patients treated only with pembrolizumab were alive in three years. Thats very exciting news.

Theres also ongoing research that finds promise in a treatment that combines ipilimumab with another immunotherapy drug, nivolumab.

The study, which focuses on patients with advanced melanoma who received this combination, reported a two-year overall survival rate of 64 percent. Early resultsshow that using the two drugs together is more effective than using either drug alone.

Dr. Gastman also notes that outcomes are improving as doctors learn more about how to prevent or better manage side effects from these drugs. The side effects, which are sometimes significant, may include:

Were much better now than we were five or six years ago at handling the toxic side effects, he says.

Immunotherapies wont completely replace other treatments like chemotherapy and surgery. But, they offer new and effective options for patients with melanoma. And ongoing research continues to make advances, Dr. Gastman says.

Read more here:
These New Skin Cancer Treatments Unleash Your Immune System ... - Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic (blog)

News Release

Thursday, July 27, 2017

NIH-funded study suggests role for specific immune cells in brain disease.

A new study suggests that T cells, which help the bodys immune system recognize friend from foe, may play an important role in Parkinsons disease (PD). The study, published in the journal Nature, was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health.

This collaboration between neuroscientists and immunologists provides important new evidence for ways in which the immune system can play a role in PD, a link that can be used to further define this interaction, said Beth-Anne Sieber, Ph.D., a program director at NINDS.

A research team led by David Sulzer, Ph.D., professor of neurology at Columbia University in New York City and Alessandro Sette, Dr.Biol.Sci., professor of infectious diseases at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in California, examined the role of T cells in PD.

Drs. Sulzer and Sette, along with their colleagues, collected blood samples from 67 individuals with Parkinsons disease and 36 healthy controls. Immune cells were extracted from the samples and mixed with portions of the alpha-synuclein protein, which accumulates in the brains of people with PD and can result in cell death.

They found that T cells from people with PD responded to the presence of alpha-synuclein to a much greater degree than those gathered from the control group.

In particular, two regions of alpha-synuclein evoked reactions from T cells: a section that often contains mutations linked with PD, and a portion undergoing a chemical change that can lead to accumulation of the protein in the brain.

The researchers identified four genetic variations that were associated with T cell reactivity to alpha-synuclein. More than half of people with PD carried at least one of those variants, compared to 20 percent of controls.

These findings expose a potential biomarker for PD that may someday help in diagnosing the disease or be used to evaluate how well treatments are working, said Dr. Sette.

According to the authors, the results suggest that PD may have characteristics of an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system incorrectly attacks the bodys own cells.

As we age, proteins throughout the body undergo various molecular modifications. If they become unrecognizable, the immune system may start going after them, thinking they may be dangerous invaders, said Dr. Sulzer.

PD is a neurodegenerative disorder in which dopamine-producing brain cells die off, resulting in tremors, muscle stiffness, loss of balance and slow movement. Additional symptoms may include emotional changes and disrupted sleep.

More research is needed to learn about the interactions between immune cells and alpha-synuclein. Improved understanding of those interactions may lead to information about disease progression as well as potential connections to other neurodegenerative disorders.

This study was funded by grants from NINDS (NS38377).

For more information:https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/All-Disorders/Parkinsons-Disease-Information-Page

The NINDS is the nations leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system.The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

ReferenceSulzer D et al. T cells of Parkinsons disease patients recognize alpha-synuclein peptides. Nature. June 21, 2017.

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Immune system may mount an attack in Parkinson's disease - NIH - National Institutes of Health (press release)

Inflammation is the bodys attempt to protect itself by removing harmful substances as part of the bodys immune response.

It releases chemicals from the bodys white blood cells into the blood or affected tissues.

The process is essential for our infections, wounds and damaged tissue to heal.

However, if the inflammation becomes chronic - lasting for several months or years - it can cause problems.

Indeed, it can trigger a number of well known diseases and conditions.

Asthma

Its a condition where breathing becomes difficult, causing shortness of breath and chest tightness.

Inflammation of the air passages results in a temporary narrowing of the airways that carry oxygen to the lungs.

Rheumatoid arthritis

The conditions symptoms are caused by inflammation, triggering redness, swelling, warmth and pain.

Its initially triggered by a substance that gets into the joints that the body is trying to kill off.

Sinusitis

Its an inflammation and swelling of the tissue lining of the sinuses.

Normally they are filled with air, but if they become blocked with fluid, germs can trigger an infection.

Tuberculosis

Its an infectious bacterial disease that tends to affect the lungs.

Research has found inflammation to be behind its growth.

Periodontitis

It literally means: inflammation around the tooth

Its a common disease triggered by bacteria and local inflammation triggered by those bacteria.

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Immune system warning: These five conditions are because of inflammation - Express.co.uk

Credit: German Cancer Research Center

In order for cancer cells to successfully spread and multiply, they must find a way to avoid the body's own immune system. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have published an explanation for how this occurs with chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL).

Degenerated cells cause an inflammatory reaction and influence other blood cells to the extent that the immune system is suppressed. The cells send out their messages via exosomes. The discovery by the DKFZ scientists paves the way for new therapy approaches.

Tumor cells influence their environment in order to avoid an immune response and to facilitate favorable conditions for growth. It has been known for a long time that solid tumors, those which grow as solid tissue inside an organ, manipulate macrophages, the 'big eater' cells of the immune system, for their own purposes. "Recently, we have seen increasing evidence that something similar must be happening in leukemia," says Martina Seiffert of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. So leukemia cells acquired by the patient through CLL could only survive in a culture cell if it also contains macrophages or monocytes, the precursors of the 'big eaters.' They serve as a form of nourishment for cancer cells.

Seiffert's team has now discovered how the interplay between leukemia cells and monocytes becomes a catalyst for cancer development. "We know that the so-called PD-L1 receptor occurs more frequently on the surface of these nourishing cells, and suppresses the immune response," says Seiffert. "What we have here is a so-called immune checkpoint, which prevents excessive immune responses." In this case, however, the immune response is suppressed so much that the cancer cells can multiply unopposed. In addition, the monocytes send out semiochemicals, which belong to the inflammation response of the immune system and support the growth and multiplication of the cancer cells.

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The question has been how the leukemia cells can manipulate the monocytes in their environment. The scientists initially presumed that exosomes might play a rolethese are little bubbles which are transmitted from cells to their surrounding environment. They help cells communicate with each other and influence each other's behavior. The blood plasma of CLL patients does, in fact, exhibit a larger number of exosomes sent out by leukemia cells. The analysis of these exosomes has shown that among other things, they contain Y RNA. This is a class of short RNA molecules with little-understood functions.

In order to evaluate the effect of the Y RNA, the scientists treated monocytes and macrophages of humans and mice with suspect exosomes, as well as purified Y RNA from those exosomes, in a culture dish. In both cases, the cells changed similarly to how they would in CLL patients. "They carry more PD-L1 receptors to their surface and emit semiochemicals thst accelerate the immune response and create favorable growth conditions for leukemia cells," explained Franziska Haderk, principal author of the publication.

Another discovery: The Y RNA message of the so-called toll-like receptors 7 and 8 (TLR7/8) is found in the monocytes. These serve to register foreign RNA, such as from pathogens, and to activate the immune response. At the same time, the activation of the toll-like receptors also strengthens the immune inhibitor PD-L1. "This creates an environment that supports the survival of the cancer cells and recruits cells of the immune system, but at the same time, stops an effective response of the immune cells via the PD-L1," says Haderk.

The DKFZ researchers have identified multiple new therapeutic approaches. In addition to a suppression of the PD-L1 receptor, it is conceivable to inhibit the recognition of the Y RNA message. "This could succeed by adding TLR inhibitors such as Chloroquin, a medication used for malaria and rheumatic inflammation," explained Seiffert. In experiments with mice given CLL cells, the agent was able to suppress the reproduction of cancer cells markedly. "That makes Chloroquin an interesting candidate for a combination therapy along with other agents," said Seiffert.

Explore further: New types of blood cells discovered

More information: F. Haderk el al., "Tumor-derived exosomes modulate PD-L1 expression in monocytes," Science Immunology (2017). immunology.sciencemag.org/look 6/sciimmunol.aah5509

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Cancer cells put the brakes on immune system - Medical Xpress - Medical Xpress

In boosting the effectiveness of our immune system, we might already be practising many of the right habits, but it does not hurt to have a reminder of what we should be doing while learning new information about the immune system.

The four key areas that we should always pay attention to are food, exercise, hormonal balance and nutrition.

This week, we discuss hormonal balance and nutrition.

Balance your hormones

It is easy to forget how hormonal balance can impact your immune systems response to external attacks.

The thyroid and adrenal glands, two key hormone-producing parts of our internal system, play a big role in many immune system-activating functions.

Imbalances in oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone can also impact immune responses negatively, be it overproduction or low levels of hormones.

Briefly, heres how different types of hormones help boost the immune system.

The adrenal glands produce hormones that are needed for metabolic function. This includes DHEA, the most prolific hormone that influences the production of oestrogen, testosterone and cortisol.

DHEA levels can drop when you are stressed or tired, causing your white blood cell count to also drop, lowering your immune response.

Thyroid health affects our developmental, cardiovascular and metabolic function, all of which are important to an effective immune system. Low thyroid levels disrupt the bodys response to viruses and slows response to inflammation.

Oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone levels all affect the activity of B-cells and T-cells lymphocytes that are integral to the disease-fighting mechanism of your immune system.

Low levels of oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone have its consequences, but it should also be noted that an overproduction of each hormone can cause problems like autoimmune diseases.

Its not easy to fully understand what is happening inside your body, but a few telling symptoms of hormone imbalance include tiredness, low moods and weight gain, amongst others.

Hormonal balance does not have a one-size-fits-all solution. If you suspect hormonal imbalance, seek a doctors advice.

Depending on your age, hormone replacement therapy might be recommended, but instead of synthetic hormones, ask him or her about bio-identical hormones a term for hormones that have the same chemical structure as naturally-occurring hormones.

Get the right amount of nutrients

Good nutrition is essential for a strong immune system, which offers protection from seasonal illnesses such as the flu, and other health problems, including arthritis, allergies, abnormal cell development and cancers.

Help protect yourself against infection and boost your immunity by including the following nutrients in your eating plan.

Protein is part of the bodys defense mechanism. Eat a variety of proteins including seafood, lean meat, poultry, eggs, beans, peas, soy products, unsalted nuts and seeds.

Vitamin A helps regulate the immune system and protects against infections by keeping skin and tissues in the mouth, stomach, intestines and respiratory system healthy.

Get this immune-boosting vitamin from foods such as sweet potatoes, carrots, kale, spinach, red bell peppers, apricots, eggs or foods labeled vitamin A fortified such as milk or cereal.

Vitamin C protects you from infection by stimulating the formation of antibodies and boosting immunity. Include more of this healthy vitamin in your diet with citrus fruits such as oranges, grapefruit and tangerines, or red bell pepper, papaya, strawberries, tomato juice, or foods fortified with vitamin C, such as some cereals.

Vitamin E works as an antioxidant, neutralises free radicals and may improve immune function.

Include vitamin E in your diet with fortified cereals, sunflower seeds, almonds, vegetable oils (such as sunflower or safflower oil), hazelnuts and peanut butter

Zinc helps the immune system work properly and may help wounds heal. It can be found in lean meat, poultry, seafood, milk, whole grain products, beans, seeds and nuts.

Other nutrients, including vitamin B6, folate, selenium, iron, as well as prebiotics and probiotics, may also influence immune response.

There are herbs and vitamins that you can take to replenish the nutrients in your body that will help strengthen your immune system, e.g. elderberry, green tea, ginseng, Echinacea and vitamin C can be found in their original form or in supplements at the health food store.

Below are a few more nutritious foods that will help boost immunity.

Echinacea is found mainly in the United States and parts of Canada. It stimulates antibodies, reduces inflammation and is used to treat infections in Europe.

Researchers have found that Echinacea lowers the incidence of the common cold by up to 55% and shortens the recovery period for upper respiratory infections. However, it is not advisable to use Echinacea daily for more than eight weeks.

Licorice has phenolic compounds that contain antioxidant activity. One of the compounds is called beta-glycyrrhetinic acid, and it reduces inflammation and allergies.

Licorice root can slow down abnormal cell growth, decrease liver inflammation and encourage macrophage production, helping to reduce stress on the immune system.

Up to 600mg can be taken each day for up to six weeks.

Olive leaf extract contains flavonoids and phenolic compounds that have antioxidant properties.

One of those primary compounds, oleuropein, is found to delay the growth of fungus and bacteria that can damage the immune system. Up to 1,500mg can be taken each day in divided doses.

Astragalus has been around in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. Its a herb that is part of the legume family and protects against infections by activating antibodies like B-cells and T-cells, as well as macrophages that fight bacteria and viruses. About 1,000mg of astragalus can be taken daily.

Shiitake mushroom is used in Chinese medicine for herbal therapy. It can prevent bacterial strains from attacking the immune system and improve its function. Up to 400mg of shiitake mushroom can be taken each day in divided doses.

Vitamin C should be consumed every day to improve the production of lymphocytes.

A body that experiences stress usually falls low on vitamin C, but by replenishing it, your body can stave off symptoms of infection, or shorten the time one might be sick.

Up to 3,000mg of vitamin C can be supplemented each day.

Goldenseal root has been used for centuries in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine because of its immune-enhancing properties. It is used to fight bacteria, fungi and parasites.

Goldenseal root improves immune function by increasing the activity of immunoglobulin antibodies. Up to 500mg can be taken daily in divided doses.

Elderberry is rich in antioxidants and flavonoids that activate immunity.

It can increase the production of cytokines to stimulate the immune response and decrease flu symptoms. Up to 1,500mg of elderberry can be taken daily.

Green tea is rich in catechin polyphenols and is a strong antioxidant that stimulates immunity by boosting T-cell production and encouraging macrophage activity.

Green tea also decreases the proliferation of bacterial antigens. Up to 500mg per day can be taken daily.

Grapefruit seed extract, or citrus paradisi, is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral. It has been found to inhibit the development of 67 different bacterial strains. The recommended dosage is 100mg to 300mg each day.

Nutrients are your immune regulators and impaired immunity can be enhanced by modest amounts of a combination of micronutrients as supplements.

Datuk Dr Nor Ashikin Mokhtar is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist. For further information, visit http://www.primanora.com. The information provided is for educational and communication purposes only and it should not be construed as personal medical advice. Information published in this article is not intended to replace, supplant or augment a consultation with a health professional regarding the readers own medical care. The Star does not give any warranty on accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness or other assurances as to the content appearing in this column. The Star disclaims all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.

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Helping immune function - Star2.com

Spectral Design/ShutterstockIn the 20th century, an estimated 300 million people died from Smallpox. The disease scourged humanity for upwards of 12 millenniaand was finally eradicated in 1980, thanks, in part, to cows, or rather, a disease which afflicted cows.

In 1796, Edward Jenner brought forth a theory, a proposed solution to Smallpox, an epidemic which was, at the time, killing approximately 300,000 Europeans per year.

His theory was based on the observation that milkmaids who contracted cowpox would never go on to contract Smallpox. Why not infect people with Cowpox, a treatable disease, to prevent them from contracting Smallpox, which was basically a death sentence? Suddenly, Jenner had the first vaccine on his hands. (Here are 10 vaccine myths you can safely ignore.)

(The term vaccine actually comes from the scientific name for Cowpox, Variolae vaccinae)

And now, two centuries later, cows may be serving as a key to solving another one of historys deadliest diseases: HIV.

A study published in Nature showed that the immune system of cows was able to adapt and combat HIV at an unprecedented ratea rate which basically rendered the disease toothless. Cows were able to neutralize 20 percent of the virus strains after 42 days, and 96 percent after 381 days.

Dr. Devin Sok, one of the researchers involved in the study told the BBC that the cows response blew our minds, especially when put into perspective to typical HIV response, It was just insane how good it looked, in humans it takes three-to-five years to develop the antibodies were talking about.

The study did not produce a vaccine or treatment quite yet, but the results certainly are encouraging. (By the way, are your teens up to date on their vaccines? They probably arent.)

Read more:
This Animal's Immune System Holds the Clue for an HIV Vaccine, According to Science - Reader's Digest

WASHINGTON

New technology allows scientists working on new vaccines to combat infectious diseases to test their products' effectiveness on a model immune system in a laboratory, without putting the upgraded vaccine into humans.

Researchers have begun building model immune systems using human cells, and this lab technique should make early vaccine trials quicker, safer and cheaper, according to scientists in the United States and Britain involved in this novel approach. The technology also has the potential to be used to mass produce antibodies in the lab to supplement real immune systems that are compromised, or battling pathogens like Ebola.

A report announcing the new "in vitro booster vaccination" technique was published Monday in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, a prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Rockefeller University Press. The research project involved produced antibodies that attack strains of tetanus, HIV and influenza.

Selecting specific antibodies

When a pathogen invades the body, the immune system develops antibodies specific to that pathogen. The antibodies latch onto the pathogen and either flag it for destruction, disrupt the life cycle of the pathogen, or do nothing.

Before now, when scientists tried to get immune cells in the lab to produce antibodies, the cells would do so indiscriminately, producing all sorts of antibodies, not just the relevant ones. Now scientists are able to get the antibodies they specifically desire by using nanoparticles that connect antigens, the active parts of a vaccine, with molecules that stimulate the immune system.

"We can make these cells very quickly in vitro in a Petri dish to become antibody-producing cells," said a lead author of the new report, Facundo Batista. "This is quite important," he told VOA, "because until now the only way that this has been done is though vaccinating people."

Batista was one of a number of scientists involved in the study from the Ragon Institute, established in the Boston area by experts from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the goal of working toward development of an effective vaccine against HIV/AIDS. Others contributing to the new report were from the Francis Crick Institute in London and other institutions.

New technique saves time, money

The new laboratory technique will save time and money. After all the work of planning, funding and getting approval for a vaccine trial in humans, "you're talking at least about three years in a best-case scenario, if you have a very promising product," said Matthew Laurens, an associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Maryland who was not associated with the study. That lengthy process will now be shortened to a matter of months.

This can eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, long and costly trials, and fewer volunteer subjects will be exposed to potentially dangerous vaccines.

The ease of testing new vaccines will also allow scientists to tinker more and better understand how vaccines work. With better understanding, they may be able to develop more sophisticated vaccines that can be effective against more pathogens those that differ as a result of genetic variations. This will be important in the fight against rapidly evolving pathogens like HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Outside of vaccine testing, immune systems in laboratories can lead to greatly improved methods for the mass production of antibodies. Scientists have been trying to identify antibodies that can attack all strains of the Ebola virus; this new technology will improve their chances of developing an effective therapy.

Laurens, who studies malaria vaccine development at Maryland, called the research exciting.

"This would allow vaccine candidates to be tested very early and very quickly," he told VOA, "with rapid turnaround and reporting of results to either advance a vaccine candidate or tell scientists they need to go back and look for other candidates."

Link:
Test-tube Immune Systems Can Speed Vaccine Development - Voice of America

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus discovered that a process protecting the body from autoimmune disease appears to prevent it from creating antibodies that can neutralize the HIV-1 virus, a finding that could possibly help lead to a vaccine that stimulates production of these antibodies.

Lead researcher Raul M. Torres and his team sought to better understand how the bodys own immune system might be getting in the way of neutralizing the HIV-1 virus.

They knew that some patients infected with HIV-1 developed what are known as broadly neutralizing antibodies, or bnAbs, that can protect against a wide variety of HIV-1 strains by recognizing a protein on the surface of the virus called Env. But the patients only develop these antibodies after many years of infection. Because of shared features found in a number of HIV-1 bnAbs, researchers suspected the inability or delayed ability to make these type of protective antibodies against HIV was due to the immune system suppressing production of the antibodies to prevent the body from creating self-reactive antibodies that could cause autoimmune diseases like systemic lupus erythematosus.

At the same time, patients with lupus showed slower rates of HIV-1 infection. Scientists believe thats because these autoimmune patients produce self-reactive antibodies that recognize and neutralize HIV-1. The process by which the body prevents the creation of antibodies that can cause autoimmune disease is known as immunological tolerance. Torres wanted to break through that tolerance and stimulate the production of antibodies that could neutralize HIV-1. We wanted to see if people could make a protective response to HIV-1 without the normal restraint imposed by the immune system to prevent autoimmunity, Torres said.

The researchers first tested mice with genetic defects that caused lupus-like symptoms. They found that many of them produced antibodies that could neutralize HIV-1 after being injected with alum, a chemical that promotes antibody secretion and is often used in vaccinations. Next, they treated normal mice with a drug that impairs immunological tolerance and found that they began producing antibodies capable of neutralizing HIV-1. The production of these antibodies was increased by alum injections. And if the mice were also injected with the HIV-1 protein Env, they produced potent broadly neutralizing antibodies capable of neutralizing a range of HIV-1 strains.

In every case, the production of these HIV-neutralizing antibodies correlated with the levels of a self-reactive antibody that recognizes a chromosomal protein called Histone H2A. The researchers confirmed these antibodies could neutralize HIV-1. We think this may reflect an example of molecular mimicry where the virus has evolved to mimic or look like a self protein, Torres said.

Torres suggested that the difficulty in developing a vaccine against HIV-1 may be because of the ability of the virus to camouflage itself as a normal part of the body. But breaching peripheral immunological tolerance permits the production of cross-reactive antibodies able to neutralize HIV-1, Torres said.

Since the research was done on animals, scientists must still determine its relevance for HIV-1 immunity in humans. The primary consideration will be determining whether immunological tolerance can be temporarily relaxed without leading to detrimental autoimmune manifestations and as a means to possibly elicit HIV-1 bnAbs with vaccination, he said. The study is published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

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Breakthrough: Switching immune system off can turn HIV protection on - Hindustan Times

Q. I seem to be getting sick a lot lately, and Im worried that my immune system isnt working right. Could that be a reason?

A diminished immune system could be the cause of your problems. Go to your doctor for a checkup and diagnosis.

The immune system is a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to defend the body against attacks by organisms such as bacteria, parasites, and fungi that can cause infections.

The cells that are part of this defense system are white blood cells, or leukocytes. Foreign substances that invade the body are called antigens.

No two individuals have the same immune system. Some people seem to be dressed in a suit of armor against infections while others get floored whenever there are bugs about.

When it comes to germs, getting older has advantages and disadvantages.

As we age, our immune systems develop defenses against antigens. We acquire antibodies to the germs weve defeated in the past. Because of this phenomenon, adults tend to get fewer colds than children.

Now for some of the bad news that comes with advancing age:

The thymus, which is located behind the breastbone, is one of the organs of the immune system. The thymus is where immune cells - white blood cells - called T lymphocytes (T cells) mature. The thymus begins to shrink when we are young adults. By middle age it is only about 15 percent of its maximum size.

Some T cells kill antigens directly. Others help coordinate other parts of the immune system. Although the number of T cells does not decrease with aging, T-cell function decreases. This causes parts of the immune system to weaken and increases the risk for becoming ill.

Macrophages, which are white blood cells that ingest antigens, dont work as quickly as they used to in younger years. This slowdown may be one reason that cancer is more common among older people.

There are fewer white blood cells capable of responding to new antigens. Thus, when older people encounter a new antigen, the body is less able to remember and defend against it.

The amount of antibodies produced in response to an antigen is less in older people, and the antibodies are less able to attach to the antigen. These changes may partly explain why pneumonia, influenza, infectious endocarditis, and tetanus are more common among older people and cause death more often. These changes may also partly explain why vaccines are less effective in older people.

Later in life, the immune system also seems to become less tolerant of the body's own cells. Sometimes an autoimmune disorder develops; normal tissue is mistaken for non-self tissue, and immune cells attack certain organs or tissues. Among the autoimmune disorders are lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma and ankylosing spondylitis.

Diabetes, which is also more common with increasing age, can also lead to decreased immunity.

There are immunizations that are important as we get older. Adult tetanus immunizations should be given every 10 years; a booster may be given sooner if there is a dirty wound.

Your healthcare provider may recommend other immunizations, including Pneumovax (to prevent pneumonia or its complications), flu vaccine, hepatitis immunization, or others. These optional immunizations are not necessary for all older people, but are appropriate for some.

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Regular checkups can combat immune-system slowdown - CapeGazette.com

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Immune system function varies significantly between individuals, and up to now there has been no effective means of measuring and describing these differences. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown that white blood cell composition is unique in individuals, and that the composition of these cells may predict immune system response to various forms of stimulation. The study, which is published in PNAS, paves the way for more individualised treatment of diseases involving the immune system, e.g. autoimmune disorders, allergies and various forms of cancer.

The human immune system comprises a complex network of different white blood cells, which coordinate their efforts in order to combat different external and internal threats. This network varies widely between different individuals, but the differences have been difficult to measure and understand.

Together with colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University in the USA, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) have developed a tool for measuring the unique composition of white blood cells in individuals. Researchers have also found that the test may predict how individuals will respond to a given treatment, e.g. individual response to an influenza vaccine.

Measuring the individual's "immunotypes"

"By measuring all populations of white blood cells in the blood at the same time, we can describe the composition of an individual's immune system and show that this is unique for the individual. We call this measure, the individual's "immunotype". We have also found that this immunotype makes the complex immune system more understandable and predictable," says Petter Brodin, physician and researcher at SciLifeLab and the Department of Medicine, Solna, at Karolinska Institutet.

A human immunotype is not constant, but varies over time in response to external factors. In previous studies, Petter Brodin and his research colleagues have shown that in humans individual differences in immune defence can be attributed primarily to the many different environmental factors unique to each individual, e.g. diet, infections, vaccines and microflora.

Blood samples from 1,500 individuals

In the study in question, the researchers analysed blood samples from approximately 1,500 healthy individuals and tested in vitro how their white blood cells respond to different stimuli. They have also vaccinated individuals against influenza and studied which antibody protection the individuals developed thereafter. It transpired that all different types of stimulation could be predicted based on the individual's immunotype, which was surprising according to Petter Brodin.

"Our technique can be scaled up, and my hope is that eventually it will be used clinically to predict those individuals who may benefit from a particular immunological treatment or a certain vaccine. The technique may also contribute to more individualised drugs to treat autoimmune disease and allergies, as well as immunotherapy to treat cancer, which can be adapted based on the individual's immune response," says Petter Brodin.

Explore further: Differences in individuals' immune responses linked to flu vaccine effectiveness

More information: Kevin J. Kaczorowski et al. Continuous immunotypes describe human immune variation and predict diverse responses, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1705065114

Read more:
New tool demonstrates differences in human immune systems - Medical Xpress

Boost your immune system and take a preventative approach to your wellbeing this winter.

Photos: Instagram @emrata, @selenagomez

As the number of new flu viruses set to hit our shores this year increases, so too do the studies that show theres a multitude of ways to protect your immune system this winter. Got the chicken soup, antiseptic hand gel and multivitamins? Add the following into your daily routine for improved fortification against colds and flu.

Book in for a 20-minute weekly massage and you could lower your cortisol levels a stress hormone that negatively impacts the immune system by up to 53 per cent, according to researchers at the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine in the US. Regular moderate pressure massage has also been shown to increase the production of dopamine and serotonin, flooding your body with the kind of happy hormones that no amount of bad weather can affect. Live in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane? Try new mobile massage on demand service, Blys. Think of it as the Uber of qualified therapists.

Scientists at Finlands University of Turku found that a slice per day of probiotic rich cheese, such as Gouda, can boost immunity, as can a daily pot of yoghurt, according to researchers at the University of Vienna, Austria.

Having sex frequently can boost your immune system, according to researchers at Wilkes University in the US, who found that university students who engaged in sexual activity once or twice per week had higher levels of immunoglobulin A (an antibody that helps fights infections) in their saliva. Those who had no sex or very frequent sex (three or more times per week) had lower levels.

Human connection has long been linked to peak physical health, but researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in the US have gone one further and discovered that the larger your social group, the better your chance of escaping winter untouched by influenza. They gave 83 college students the flu vaccine and found that those who enjoyed the company of a larger circle of friends (real ones, not Facebook mates), produced more flu-fighting antibodies than those who preferred more intimate groups. To get in on the action, consider joining or starting a book club or other hobby group based on your interests.

High levels of vitamin D and increased immune health go hand-in-hand, but researchers at the University of Sydney have discovered that out of the 24,000 people they tested, 58 per cent were deficient in the vitamin, putting them at risk of a host of illnesses and diseases. To keep your body fighting fit, aim to get 20 minutes of sunshine (the most potent source of vitamin D) in the winter months, preferably in the morning or late afternoon, outside peak UV hours.

Make the most of those glorious goose-down pillows and winter-weight quilts and commit to sleeping at least seven hours a night, researchers at the University of California San Francisco in the US advise. They found that those who sleep six hours or less per night are four times more likely to catch a cold when exposed to the virus than those who sleep seven or more.

Regular moderate activity really is the first line of defence against colds and flu. US researchers who studied more than 1000 people found that those who did five or more days of exercise a week experienced 43 per cent fewer days with upper respiratory tract infections than those who exercised one day or less. And when they did get a cold, the frequent exercisers suffered milder symptoms than the less frequent.

Cold and flu germs are easily transmitted via hand-to-hand contact, so try to get into the habit of washing your hands regularly with soap throughout the day. Need encouragement? Researchers from San Diegos Naval Health Research Centre in the US saw a 45 per cent decrease in respiratory illness among its 45,000 recruits who had been instructed to wash their hands at least five times a day.

Meeting friends for coffee? Studies show swapping your usual latte for a soothing cup of chamomile increases antibacterial activity within your body, helping to boost immunity and fight infections associated with colds. If youre not a fan of the taste, inhaling steam infused with chamomile extract can be just as helpful in warding off a cold.

A study from the University of Kentucky in the US found that as people become more optimistic, their bodies better resist invasion by viruses and bacteria.

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How to stay well when everyone around you is coughing up phlegm - Body and Soul