StemCell Therapy

MIAMI, Jan. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Organicell Regenerative Medicine Inc. (BPSR) (the Company) is pleased to provide shareholders and the investment community with an update on operations since its filing on November 1, 2018 of the Companys Annual Report on Form filing of Form 10-K for the year ended October 31, 2017, as well as the status of becoming fully compliant with SEC reporting obligations.

The Company is diligently working to complete its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended January 31, 2018, April 30, 2018 and July 31, 2018 and its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 31, 2018. In August 2019, the Company engaged Marcum LLP as its independent registered public accounting firm. The Company expects these reports to be completed and filed during the first calendar quarter of 2020. Following completion and filing of these reports, the Company expects to promptly proceed to preparation and filing of its Quarterly and Annual Reports for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2019, with the objective of becoming current in its SEC reporting requirements as soon as possible.

Since November 2018, the Company has remained focused on research and development activities and sale and distribution of anti-aging and cellular therapy derived products.

In February 2019, the Company recommenced its efforts to once again operate a perinatal tissue bank processing laboratory in Miami, Florida for the purpose of performing research and development and the manufacturing and processing of anti-aging and cellular therapy derived products. This new laboratory facility became operational in May 2019 and during the same period, the Company began producing products that are now being sold and distributed to its customers.

In addition, the Company has created what it believes is a world class research, medical and scientific advisory team. We believe that our team is one of the most qualified and industry reputable teams assembled to adequately address the current and expected future medical and regulatory challenges facing the Company and overall industry and to provide leadership in the ongoing development of superior quality products for use in the health care industry.

The Company has actively taken steps to assure that it meets compliance with current and anticipated United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations expected to be enforced beginning in November 2020 requiring that the sale of products that fall under Section 351 of the Public Health Services Act pertaining to marketing traditional biologics and human cells, tissues and cellular and tissue based products (HCT/Ps) can only be sold pursuant to an approved biologics license application (BLA). On July 14, 2019, the Company received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to proceed with two pilot studies in connection with the Companys efforts to obtain Investigation New Drug (IND) approval from the FDA and commence clinical trials in connection with the use of the Companys products and related treatment protocols for specific indications. The Company is aggressively pursuing efforts to obtain the aforementioned IND approvals and commence and complete those clinical studies as well as obtaining approval to commence additional studies for other specific indications it has identified that the use of its products will provide more favorable and desired health related benefits for patients seeking alternative treatment options than are currently available.

In an effort to increase sales and mitigate anticipated near future restrictions expected to be imposed by the FDA with respect to the use and distribution of Section 351 designated biologics, the Company is seeking to develop sales and distribution channels outside of the United States. In addition, the Company is focusing its efforts on developing other leading edge product offerings that would not fall within the FDA regulations for requiring a BLA license for U.S. manufacture and sale.

As a result of the Companys expected future increase in processing requirements and to enable it to perform certain advanced research and development activities, the Company is currently in negotiations to relocate its laboratory facility during the second calendar quarter of 2020 to a larger ISO 7 classified research and development and processing facility.

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The Company has also been actively developing and expanding its sales, marketing and distribution network which it believes that based on the quality of the Companys existing products, the Companys commitment to regulatory compliance and superior research and development resources, the Company believes that it will be able to achieve desired growth during 2020.

The Company expects to provide periodic updates on operational and financial reporting developments as warranted.

For more information regarding the Company please visit our website at http://www.organicell.com.

About Organicell Regenerative Medicine, Inc.

Organicell is a leading, fully integrated Company focused in the field of regenerative medicine. Our world class research, technology, manufacturing and clinical development team is focused on creating new biologic medicines to revolutionize the field of regenerative medicine. We believe that our ground-breaking research in the field of nanotechnology, specifically exosome enrichments and other micro vesicles, is the next frontier of stem cell-based therapeutics. Organicell is committed to creating life changing and lifesaving therapies for patients.

Our mission is to transform regenerative medicine by continuing to combine exosome technology with other synergistic therapies and become the healthcare technology incubator for biologic medicine.

CAUTIONARY COMMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The foregoing contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We intend for these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws relating to forward-looking statements. This release contains forward-looking statements that reflect Organicell Regenerative Medicine Inc., and its subsidiaries, plans and expectations, financial situation, the ability to retain key personnel, product acceptance, the commercial success of any new products or technologies, success of clinical programs, ability to retain key customers, ability to expand sales and channels, and legislation or regulations affecting our operations and the ability to protect our patents and other intellectual property both domestically and internationally and other known and unknown risks and uncertainties. You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. In this press release and related comments by Company management, words like "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend", believes and similar expressions are used to identify forward-looking statements, representing management's current judgment and expectations about possible future events.

Management believes these forward-looking statements and the judgments upon which they are based to be reasonable, but they are not guarantees of future performance and involve numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance, achievements or financial position to be materially different from any expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements are set forth in our Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. Other information can be obtained at http://www.organicell.com. The contents of the Companys website are not incorporated by reference in this Press Release.

Specific information included in this press release may change over time and may or may not be accurate after the date of the release. Organicell has no intention and specifically disclaims any duty to update the information in this press releases.

CONTACT:Organicell Regenerative Medicine Inc.4045 Sheridan Ave.Suite 239Miami Beach, FL 33140Website:http: http://www.organicell.comPhone: (888) 963-7881Email: info@organicell.com

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Organicell Regenerative Medicine Inc. Provides Update On Operations and Financial Reporting Status - Yahoo Finance

Transaction Accelerates Anikas Revenue Growth, Broadens Joint Preservation and Restoration Product Portfolio, Enhances Commercial Capabilities and Expands Pipeline

BEDFORD, Mass., Jan. 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Anika Therapeutics, Inc.(ANIK), a global, integrated joint preservation and regenerative therapies company with products leveraging its proprietaryhyaluronic acid (HA) technology platform, today announced it has closed its acquisition of Parcus Medical, a leading, privately held sports medicine company.

Under the previously disclosed terms of the agreement, Anika acquired all outstanding membership interests of Parcus Medical in exchange for an upfront payment of approximately$35 millionin cash from the companys existing balance sheet, subject to customary closing adjustments. Parcus Medical unitholders will be eligible to receive an additional$60 millioncontingent upon the achievement of certain commercial milestones.

I want to congratulate our team on closing the Parcus Medical transaction and officially welcome the Parcus Medical team to the Anika family, said Joseph Darling, President and Chief Executive Officer of Anika Therapeutics. This acquisition immediately adds a diverse base of high-growth revenue and will help us achieve the objectives we set forth in our five-year strategic plan. We can now turn our attention to executing our integration plan and continuing to transform Anika into a leading global sports and regenerative medicine company.

Parcus Medical has a diverse product family that helps facilitate surgical procedures on the shoulder, knee, hip and distal extremities. The acquisition significantly expands Anikas offerings into the fast-growing ambulatory surgical center market. The Parcus Medical executive team, led by PresidentMark Brunsvold, will join Anika and continue to lead the Parcus Medical business.

SVB Leerink LLCacted as exclusive financial advisor to Anika andSullivan & Cromwell LLPacted as Anikas legal counsel in connection with the Parcus Medical transaction.

AboutAnika Therapeutics, Inc.Anika Therapeutics, Inc.(ANIK) is a global, integrated joint preservation and regenerative therapies company based inBedford, Mass.Anika is committed to delivering therapies to improve the lives of patients across a continuum of care from osteoarthritis pain management to joint preservation and restoration. The company has more than two decades of global expertise commercializing more than 20 products based on its proprietaryhyaluronic acid (HA) technology platform. For more information about Anika, please visitwww.anikatherapeutics.com.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, concerning, but not limited to, the acquisition of Parcus Medical and the effects of the acquisition.The Securities and Exchange Commission("SEC") encourages companies to disclose forward-looking statements so that investors can better understand a companys future prospects and make informed investment decisions. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by such words as "will," "likely," "may," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "seek," "designed," "develop," "would," "future," "can," "could," and other expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and trends and that do not relate to historical matters. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release regarding our strategies, prospects, financial condition, operations, costs, plans, and objectives are forward-looking statements.

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Anika Therapeutics Closes Acquisition of Parcus Medical - Yahoo Finance

Celavie Biosciences, LLC, a company working to improve lives and restore hope by advancing innovations in CNS diseases with regenerative stem cell-based therapies, today announced their presentation of a poster, titled Five year follow-up on the first-in-human transplantation of undifferentiated stem cells into Parkinsonian patients reveals no adverse effects with improvement in motor function or arrest of the disease progression in five out of seven patients, at the Phacilitate Leaders World and World Stem Cell Summit, held January 21-24 in Miami, Florida.

The poster shows five-year follow-up data that expands on the exploratory clinical data in 7 PD patients with four-year follow-up published in Cell Transplantation in 2018. Oleg Kopyov, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Celavie, presented the poster on-site at the Miami Hyatt Regency.

In the results at one year after cell grafting, all but two of the seven patients completing the study showed various degrees of motor improvement, and five of them showed better response to medication. At five-year evaluation, Unified Parkinsons Disease Rating Scale III (UPDRS III) scores remained better than at baseline in 4/7 patients in the OFF condition and in 5/7 patients in the ON condition. None of the patients showed unwanted motor disturbances (dyskinesias), tumor formation, or any detectable immune responses to the grafted cells.

We are excited that the five-year data for our exploratory clinical trial suggest that the neural progenitor cells are able to stop or slow down the motor deterioration in Parkinsons patients that one would expect to see in this timespan, showing continued improvement even compared to the fourth year, said Oleg Kopyov. We anticipate filing an IND with the FDA for a Phase I U.S. trial in patients with moderate to advanced Parkinsons disease this year.

In addition, Sandy Solmon, Celavies CEO, will deliver presentations at two upcoming international industry conferences:

Ms. Solmon will discuss Celavies application of the companys human undifferentiated allogeneic pluripotent stem cells in Parkinsons disease, as well as pre-clinical data in cerebellar ataxia and upcoming milestones. To schedule a meeting with Celavie Biosciences at these conferences, please contact: Mary Beth Cicero at mbcicero@lavoiehealthscience.com.

About the World Stem Cell Summit

Produced by the non-profit Regenerative Medicine Foundation (RMF), and in its 15th year, the World Stem Cell Summit will take place January 21-24, 2020, in Miami, Florida in partnership with Phacilitate Leaders World, as part of Advanced Therapies Week. The Summit is the most inclusive and expansive interdisciplinary, networking, and partnering meeting in the stem cell science and regenerative medicine field. With the overarching purpose of fostering translation of biomedical research, funding, and investments targeting cures, the Summit and co-located conferences serve a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders. For more information about the upcoming World Stem Cell Summit in Miami, please visit: http://www.worldstemcellsummit.com.

About Celavie Biosciences

Celavie Biosciences is a privately-held company whose mission is to improve lives and restore hope by advancing regenerative stem cell therapies for the treatment of Parkinsons disease and other disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). The company develops undifferentiated, unmodified allogeneic pluripotent stem cell-based therapies, holds a strong IP portfolio, including 18 issued patents, and has an experienced management team blending expertise in concept and cell technology, product scalability and entrepreneurship. Celavet, a subsidiary, applies the same proprietary technologies for the treatment and prevention of serious veterinary diseases. More information is available at https://www.celavie.com/.

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Celavie Biosciences Presented Five-Year Follow-Up Data in Parkinsonian Patients at the World Stem Cell Summit - Financialbuzz.com

Manufacturing issues and a scarcity of new commercial products leave predictions that 10-20 cell and gene therapy approvals each year by 2025 somewhat fanciful, says Dark Horse Consulting.

In his plenary address at the Phacilitate conference yesterday, Anthony Davies, founder of cell and gene therapy specialist firm Dark Horse Consulting, reflected on the difficulties the sector has faced since the high of 2017 when three products achieved US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval: Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) and Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), and gene therapy Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec).

A few years ago, I introduced this evening by saying: Finally the field has had the year that weve been saying we are going to have for years. That was a great year, he told the packed room in Miami, Florida.

Dark Horses Anthony Davies opened the Phacilitate conference in Miami, Florida

The CAR-T therapies Kymriah and Yescarta gave hope to patients who previously could measure their life expectancy in a small number of months, while gene therapy Luxturna offered hope to children whose ophthalmic deterioration was a statistical certainty, he added.

With these breakthroughs, positivity was high and in January 2019 then FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb predicted in an agency statement that there will be upwards of 200 regenerative medicine IND submissions from 2020, and by 2025 the agency will be approving 10 to 20 cell and gene therapy products a year.

I think 200 INDs is doable this year, but INDs do not cure patients, Davies said. And I think if weve struggled with getting three commercial approvals in the years after that first year when three commercial approvals were made, so getting 10-20 in five years from now is going to be extremely challenging.

Since that breakthrough year, the industry has been hot by bad news and a lack of commercial products. Novartis/AveXis Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec) and bluebirds Zynteglo (autologous CD34+ cells encoding A-T87Q-globin gene) were approved by the FDA last year, while Takedas allogeneic cell therapy Alofisel (darvadstrocel) has been approved to a certain extent in Europe.

While Davies described the approval of Zolgensma, at a cost of $2.1 million, as groundbreaking, he noted it has been overshadowed by a scandal involving data falsification during the approval process.

He also noted that Zynteglos success has been muted by multiple manufacturing problems which has delayed launch.

Meanwhile, pioneer product Kymriah continues to suffer from manufacturing difficulties, and Novartis seems to be struggling with fixing them, Davies suggested.

At JP Morgan [Healthcare Conference] it was announced that for 10% of patients no shipment of drug is made, and for a very significant minority of patients shipment is made with out-of-spec product for which Novartis cannot charge, he told the conference

He added that at the investor conference last week, Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan said that they had made great process in identifying the manufacturing issues and were negotiating their resolution with the FDA.

This was exactly the same statement he made at JP Morgan the year before that.

But despite the slowdown in commercialization and industrys challenges, Davies said there remains a lot to be positive about.

Everything that I said reflects the extreme difficulty in bringing this class of therapeutics to market. If these therapeutics were easy to develop,p they would have been developed. If diseases were easy to cure, we wouldnt need new therapeutics.

Let us just use these good pieces of news and these bad pieces of news as inspiration, lets continually remind ourselves that what we do is one of the hardest things in science or medicine at this time.

Davies was not alone in his views.

Speaking Wednesday, Robert Preti, CEO of Hitachi Chem Advanced Therapeutic Solutions, admitted the industry is behind where he thought it would be when he began his career 37 years ago, but said he was not too worried.

I want to commend this industry on what we have achieved for patients, he said, noting the difficulty in developing and making these therapies. He also highlighted that with over 1,000 regenerative therapies in development, problems will eventually be ironed out and cell and gene therapies will make the widespread impact intended.

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FDA cell and gene therapy forecast 'unlikely' - Bioprocess Insider - BioProcess Insider

Regenerative Medicine report is a comprehensive analysis of global market has newly added by Healthcare Intelligence Markets to its extensive repository. The statistical report offers a prime wellspring of applicable information for global business progress.

Regenerative Medicine research reports growth rates and market value based on market dynamics, growth factors. Complete knowledge is based on the latest innovations in the industry, opportunities and trends. In addition to SWOT analysis by key suppliers, the report contains a comprehensive market analysis and major players landscape.

Ask for Sample Copy of This Report: https://www.healthcareintelligencemarkets.com/request_sample.php?id=135675

Top Key Players Profiled in This Report: DePuy SynthesMedtronicZimmerBiometStrykerAcelityMiMedx GroupOrganogenesisUniQureCellular Dynamics InternationalOsiris TherapeuticsVcanbioGamida CellGolden MeditechCytoriCelgeneVericel CorporationGuanhao BiotechMesoblastStemcell TechnologiesBellicum Pharmaceuticals

The key questions answered in the report:

1. What will be the market size and growth rate in the forecast year?

2. What are the key factors driving the Regenerative Medicine?

3. What are the risks and challenges in front of the market?

4. Who are the key vendors in the Regenerative Medicine?

5. What are the trending factors influencing the market shares?

6. What are the key outcomes of Porters five forces model?

7. Which are the global opportunities for expanding the Regenerative Medicine?

The purpose of this study is to define the overview of the Regenerative Medicine with respect to market size, shares, sales patterns, and pricing structures. Primary and secondary research refer collect the desired data of the target market. Different global regions such as North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East are examined to evaluate the facts about productivity.

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Reasons for buying this research report:

Identification of key factors instrumental in changing the Regenerative Medicine scenario, exploiting new opportunities, and gaining competitive edge.

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End-user industry that is likely to witness highest adoption of these Regenerative Medicine.

Regions that are expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period.

Finally, researchers throw light on pinpoint analysis of Regenerative Medicine dynamics. It also measures the sustainable trends and platforms which are the basic roots behind the market growth. The degree of competition is also measured in the research report. With the help of SWOT and Porters five analysis, the market has been deeply analyzed. It also helps to address the risk and challenges in front of the businesses. Furthermore, it offers extensive research on sales approaches.

If You Have Any Query, Ask Our Experts: https://www.healthcareintelligencemarkets.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=135675

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Regenerative Medicine OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3: Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5: Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6: Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: Regenerative Medicine Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Regenerative Medicine Forecast

Marvella Lit

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Regenerative Medicine Market Market 2020 | Trends, Segmentation, Applications and Opportunities Forecasts To 2027 - VOICE of Wisconsin Rapids

By Robin Young andNicole ClarkSUN Columnist

Ever noticed how the onset of winter weather tends to increase the frequency of illness? While weather does play a role, it is not the direct cause. Rather, place blame on the true culprits causing your illness; for example rhinovirus (common cold) and influenza virus (flu).

The connection between winter and illnessThe connection lies in the fact that cold, dry weather is the preferred environment for pathogens to replicate and thrive. Consequently, your body is exposed to more germs during winter. Aside from heading south when temperatures drop, your next best bet is to prepare for battle. Fortunately, with the right support, your body is equipped with a highly efficient immune system.

Your immune system in a nutshellThis defense system is composed of many specialized cells, which are generally referred to as white blood cells. The first responsibility of immune cells is to recognize foreign pathogens in your body. Once recognized, the next step is to destroy them. Finally, your immune cells memorize the pathogen in order to destroy it quickly upon the next exposure. Coordinating this effort is a full-time job, requiring immune cells to function at the top of their game.

Support your hardworking immune systemSupport for your immune system includes everything from diet to physical activity to hygiene. Here are a few suggestions on what you can do and why it works.

Vitamin DEat or consume foods high in vitamin D, which helps your immune cells recognize unwanted bacteria.Considerable controversy exists among health professionals regarding the definition of vitamin D deficiency. Consult with your provider for information specific to you.Eat 3 ounces of fish one to three times a week. Fish such as salmon, herring, tuna and trout are good sources of dietary vitamin D.Incorporate mushrooms into your diet. Mushrooms are a great source of vitamin D and phytochemicals, both of which support your immune system.Try adding mushrooms to soups, sauces and casseroles. The water in these dishes extracts the phytochemicals found in mushrooms such as button, oyster and shiitake.Other good sources of vitamin D include fortified dairy milk, plant-based milk or juices.

Move your bodyShort bouts (15 minutes) of moderate-intensity exercise help boost immune function.Moderate intensity means you are breathing harder than normal, but can still talk.

Early to bed, later to riseDuring sleep, the body not only produces immune cells, but also enhances existing cells ability to quickly respond to disease-causing microorganisms known as pathogens.Aim for seven to nine hours when you are feeling well.

Feed gut microbes with fiberComplex carbohydrates such as those found in lentils, beans, barley and oats (to name a few) feed the bacteria in your gut.Gut microbes convert complex carbs to short-chain fatty acids that, once absorbed, help immune cells recognize and destroy pathogens.Plus, short-chain fatty acids strengthen the epithelial cells lining your intestine, thus improving your natural barrier to pathogens.

Wash your hands frequentlyThe best defense starts externally.Prevent the introduction of pathogens into your mouth or nose by washing hands often.

If all else failsIf all else fails, rest, recover, hydrate and stay warm.Contrary to human tendency, when you begin to feel ill, the quickest route to recovery means taking some down time, no matter how busy you are.

Upcoming eventsJanuary/February: Support your local 4-H Program by purchasing soup from a 4-H member.Feb. 11: The 36th annual Beef Symposium will be held at the Archuleta County Extension office. The cost is $25 per person and includes lunch. Please call the Extension office at 264-5931 for more information and to register.Feb. 12: The Agricultural Financial Management Strategies workshop, hosted by the CSU Agriculture and Business Management Team, will cover topics such as risk management, business planning, enterprise budgeting, record keeping and more. Please go to http://www.2020fms.eventbrite.com to register or come into the office to pay. The cost is $15.

CPR and first aid classesCPR and first aid certification classes are offered monthly by the CSU Extension office on the second Monday and Wednesday of each month from 6 to 10 p.m. Anyone needing to receive or renew certification can register by calling the Extension office at 264-5931.We will also attempt to schedule classes on additional dates with five or more registrations. Cost for the classes is $80 for combined CPR/first aid and $55 for CPR, first aid or recertification. The type of first aid information provided will vary by the needs of the audience.

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By Pagosa Springs SUN Online

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Extension Viewpoints: Winter weather and illness prevention - Pagosa Springs Sun

Most of us think of inflammation as the redness and swelling that follow a wound, infection or injury, such as an ankle sprain, or from overdoing a sport, "tennis elbow," for example. This is "acute" inflammation, a beneficial immune system response that encourages healing, and usually disappears once the injury improves.

But chronic inflammation is less obvious and often more insidious.

Chronic inflammation begins without an apparent cause - and doesn't stop. The immune system becomes activated, but the inflammatory response isn't intermittent, as it is during an acute injury or infection. Rather, it stays on all the time at a low level.

Experts think this may be the result of an infection that doesn't resolve, an abnormal immune reaction or such lifestyle factors as obesity, poor sleep or exposure to environmental toxins. Over time, the condition can, among other things, damage DNA and lead to heart disease, cancer and other serious disorders.

"Unlike acute inflammation, which benefits health by promoting healing and recovery, chronic inflammation is characterized by persistent increases in inflammatory proteins all throughout the body and can damage health and promote several major diseases," says George Slavich, associate professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA, referring to small proteins called cytokines that the immune system releases at the site of an injury to promote recovery.

"People typically don't know that they have chronic inflammation until it's too late," he says.

Individuals often learn they have chronic inflammation when they develop an autoimmune disease, such as Crohn's disease, lupus or Type 1 diabetes, since inflammation is a hallmark of autoimmune disorders. But experts believe chronic inflammation also plays a role in developing heart disease, cancer, kidney disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, neurodegenerative disorders, cognitive decline and mental health illnesses, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia.

Scientists are still learning about why chronic inflammation is so dangerous and how it contributes to disease. Meanwhile, they suggest actions people can take to reduce their risk, specifically by changing certain behaviors.

Numerous factors appear to raise the risk of chronic inflammation, among them social isolation, psychological stress, disturbed sleep, chronic infections, physical inactivity, poor diet, obesity and exposure to air pollutants, hazardous waste products, industrial chemicals and tobacco smoke.

Experts believe individuals can reduce their risk by adopting lifestyle changes, including eating a healthy diet, improving sleep, exercising regularly, quitting smoking and finding ways to decrease stress and exposure to environmental pollutants.

"Diet is one of the key factors that influences inflammation in the body," Slavich says. "Whereas fried foods, red meat, sodas, and white bread and pastries that have refined carbohydrates tend to increase inflammation, fruits, nuts, green leafy vegetables, tomatoes and olive oil tend to reduce inflammation. Therefore, while diet is not the only factor that can be targeted to improve immune health, it is an important one."

Scientists think chronic inflammation causes oxidative stress in the body, which is an imbalance between the production of dangerous free radicals, molecules that harm healthy tissue in the body, and antioxidants, substances that clean up waste products and neutralize them. This can damage DNA as well as proteins and fatty tissue, which in turn accelerates biological aging.

"Chronic inflammation is involved in not just a few select disorders but a wide variety of very serious physical and mental health conditions," says Slavich, senior author of a recent paper signed by scientists from 22 institutions urging greater prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of severe chronic inflammation. "Indeed, chronic inflammatory diseases are the most significant cause of death in the world today, with more than 50 percent of all deaths being attributable to inflammation-related diseases."

Researchers still don't understand the exact mechanisms of how certain behaviors influence chronic inflammation, although a few examples are clear. In heart disease, for example, cigarette smoking and air pollution irritate the arteries, which stimulates inflammation.

"The 'damage accumulation' theory is a possibility, but the reality is that we do not know whether inflammation is causing these health and functional problems, or whether it's an indication that some other process is evolving that undermines health," says Luigi Ferrucci, scientific director of the National Institute on Aging. "The evidence is clearer for cardiovascular disease, since it has been demonstrated that blocking inflammation with specific drugs prevents cardiovascular events. For the other outcomes, it's still uncertain."

Chronic inflammation can contribute to cognitive decline and mental health disorders by boosting age-related immune system deterioration, known as immunosenescence, and by promoting vascular and brain aging, which, in combination, degrade neural and cognitive function, experts say.

"Chronic inflammation can also cause threat sensitivity and hypervigilance, which gives rise to anxiety disorders and PTSD, as well as fatigue and social-behavioral withdrawal, which are key symptoms of depression," Slavich says.

Scientists say more research is needed to identify biomarkers or other substances that suggest the presence of chronic inflammation.

There are probably hundreds of these potential diagnostic tools produced by the immune system, but they remain unidentified, Slavich says.

The most widely used test measures levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the blood. CRP, a substance produced by the liver, rises when chronic inflammation is present, although the standard CRP test is nonspecific - that is, it indicates inflammation, but cannot pinpoint exactly where it is. A second, more sensitive test (hs-CRP) suggests a higher risk of heart attack, although it too can be imprecise.

Some doctors screen for CRP as part of routine physical exams and also among people at risk for heart disease and autoimmune conditions. Experts think wider screening could identify more patients. "This isn't a bad idea," Ferrucci says.

Another test - this one more specific to heart disease - screens for myeloperoxidase, or MPO, an enzyme released by white blood cells that kills harmful bacteria in inflamed blood vessels. Increases in MPO can be dangerous, causing further damage to arterial walls, which encourages the formation of clots. These, in turn, can block blood flow, leading to heart attack and stroke. MPO also reduces the effectiveness of HDL, the "good" cholesterol, and removes nitric oxide, which is important for the regulation of healthy blood flow.

The good news, however, is that people worried about developing chronic inflammation can take affirmative steps to prevent it.

"If we make people aware of these risk factors, our hope is that individuals will reduce the factors that apply to them," Slavich says.

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Chronic inflammation is dangerous, and you may not even know you have it - Burlington Times News

Most of us try our best to live a healthy lifestyle by exercising and eating right and for good reason. Maintaining our health helps ensure that our immune system, our body's defense system that protects against foreign invaders, is strong. Without a fighting immune system, we become susceptible to all sorts of infectious diseases and viruses.

Staying hydrated is one way to boost your immune system. Make it a habit to drink a glass first thing in the morning.

Credit: EmirMemedovski/E+/GettyImages

There are big things we can do to keep our immune systems healthy, including eating right, exercising and staying up-to-date with vaccines, but there are also small things we can do on a daily basis to keep our body's defense system in tip-top shape.

In that spirit, here are nine everyday microhabits that can help boost your immune system and keep your body healthy.

Even if you don't smoke, you may suffer from the damage it can cause to parts of your immune system if you are exposed to it secondhand, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Chronic secondhand smoke exposure causes inflammation of both upper and lower respiratory tract and impairs the immune system's ability to produce antibodies in response to exposure to bacteria," explains Julia Blank, MD, family medicine physician at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. "This leads to decreased clearance of bacteria from the lungs and increases asthma flares, which can both make a person more vulnerable to infection."

Try to avoid places where you'll be exposed to secondhand smoke, and ask others around you to get in the habit of going outside if and when they smoke.

Protein is an essential component of a healthy immune system.

Credit: Rawpixel/iStock/GettyImages

Protein is a vital nutrient for many reasons. It helps the body build and repair tissue, and it's also the centerpiece of a healthy immune system, says Roger Adams, PhD, personal trainer, doctor of nutrition and owner of eatrightfitness.

Research, including a March 2016 study in Food & Function, has shown that protein from high-quality sources (i.e. lean meat) is essential for optimal health. "If protein intake is poor, it can impair the body's ability to make antibodies, large proteins produced by the immune system in response to the invasion of foreign molecules," Adams says. "Without sufficient protein to make antibodies, the immune system loses its ability to fight infections."

Protein can be easier to come by at lunch or dinnertime, so breakfast is the perfect meal to squeeze in more.

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends getting 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram (or 2.2 pounds) of body weight each day, but keep in mind that people who are active need more. Weight-lifters or those training for a running or cycling event should eat between 1.2 to 1.7 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. To put that into perspective, a weight-lifter who weighs 170 pounds should be getting somewhere between 92 and 131 grams of protein each day.

This one might sound obvious, but too few people actually wash their hands well enough to eliminate illness-causing bacteria. In fact, one April 2013 study published in the Journal of Environmental Health observed the hand-washing behavior of nearly 4,000 people and found that as many as 95 percent don't wash their hands for a long enough time after going to the bathroom.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends washing your hands for at least 20 seconds to minimize germ exposure and keep the immune system from getting overwhelmed.

Sing the "Happy Birthday" song twice through as you soap up your hands to make sure you're hitting the 20-second mark.

All fruits and vegetables are beneficial for our health, but some can do more for our immune system than others. The cream of the crop are the ones rich in color, as they tend to have more nutrients, Adams says.

"The more colors, the more antioxidants, which the body uses to fight off free radicals that may contribute to cellular damage," he says. "Also, these foods are loaded with vitamins and minerals essential for a healthy immune system."

Unfortunately, most people aren't getting enough. For adults, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends eating two cups of brightly colored fruits and two to three cups of vibrant veggies per day. But even one extra serving will do you good.

Learn how to fill your plate with healthy, nutrient-dense foods by logging your meals on the MyPlate app. Download now to fine-tune your diet today!

Getting enough sleep can help boost your immune system.

Credit: David-Prado/iStock/GettyImages

Sleep is essential to a healthy, functioning immune system. One February 2019 study in the_ Journal of Experimental Medicine_ found that a good night's sleep can boost the efficiency of T cells in the body, a type of white blood cell that helps the body fight off viruses.

"Many people stay up late and miss the opportunity to boost their immunity by proper sleep hygiene," says Shiva Lalezar, DO, functional medicine and anti-aging specialist. "The adrenal glands, which produce cortisol (the stress hormone), epinephrine and norepinephrine, get disrupted by poor or inadequate sleep, which, in turn has a negative impact on the immune system."

In order to go to bed at a proper hour, you have to create a healthy bedtime routine, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Start by giving yourself a curfew for example, head to bed at 10 p.m. every night and avoiding stimulating activities for at least four hours prior. Just like you set an alarm to wake up in the morning, set one to remind you to start winding down for sleep.

Staying hydrated by drinking enough water on a day-to-day basis will also give your immune system a boost.

"Dry mucous membranes and cracked skin can all be areas pathogens can invade your body," says Adams. "Staying hydrated will reduce dryness in essential areas, like the mucus membranes in your nose, and give your body's natural resources a better chance at warding off pathogens."

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends that men drink approximately 15.5 cups and women get 11.5 cups of H2O each day. Start by downing a glass first thing in the morning to start your day on the right foot.

According to Lalezar, a shot of ginger and lemon juice a day can help reduce inflammation and boost immunity.

"Ginger is a rich antioxidant and is antibacterial, and lemon is high in vitamin C, is an antioxidant and has antiviral and antibacterial properties," she says.

She recommends pre-mixing lemon juice with two tablespoons of minced or chopped ginger and keeping it in the fridge for a few weeks. "The lemon juice will act as a preservative to keep the ginger fresh during that time."

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7 Microhabits to Easily Boost Your Immune System - LIVESTRONG.COM

News Release

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Findings represent progress toward an HIV cure.

In a range of experiments, scientists have reactivated resting immune cells that were latently infected with HIV or its monkey relative, SIV, in cells in the bloodstream and a variety of tissues in animals. As a result, the cells started making copies of the viruses, which could potentially be neutralized by anti-HIV drugs and the immune system. This advance, published today in two papers in the journal Nature, marks progress toward a widely accessible cure for HIV.

The new research was conducted by investigators from the Collaboratory of AIDS Researchers for Eradication (CARE) based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and from the Emory Consortium for Innovative AIDS Research (E-CIAR) in Nonhuman Primates, both funded by the National Institutes of Health. Scientists from ViiV Healthcare and Qura Therapeutics collaborated on the research. CARE is part of the Martin Delaney Collaboratories for HIV Cure Research, the flagship NIH-supported HIV cure research program. The joint efforts of scientists from a variety of specialties made the new findings possible.

A simple, safe and scalable cure for HIV is an aspirational goal that, if achieved, would accelerate progress toward ending the HIV pandemic, said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of NIH. These new findings help sustain our cautious optimism that an HIV cure is possible.

While consistent antiretroviral therapy (ART) maintains the health of people living with HIV and prevents transmission of the virus, it is not a cure. Developing an HIV cure has been extremely difficult due to the persistence of viral reservoirs, where the virus hides from the immune system. These reservoirs consist of HIV-infected cells containing HIV genetic material that can generate new virus particles if a persons treatment is interrupted. The cells have entered a resting state that they maintain until they are activated to produce the virus. The immune system cannot recognize and kill HIV-infected cells in a resting state, and ART has no effect on them.

Consequently, scientists have been attempting to activate the HIV reservoir so therapeutic agents or an enhanced immune system can recognize and kill the infected cells, eliminating HIV. This strategy is often called kick and kill. Previous attempts to reactivate or kick the HIV reservoir worked well in the laboratory but were either ineffective or too toxic when tested in animals and people.

One of todays reports describes the testing of a compound called AZD5582, which belongs to a class of molecules that have proven safe as experimental cancer therapeutics.

CARE scientists obtained 20 mice with human immune systems, infected the animals with HIV, and then gave them ART that suppressed the virus. Next, the scientists injected AZD5582 into 10 of the mice and a placebo into the other 10.

Within 48 hours, high levels of HIV RNA were detected in the blood of six of the AZD5582-treated mice. HIV RNA levels in resting immune cells of the bone marrow, thymic organoid, lymph node, spleen, liver and lung were up to 24-fold higher in the AZD5582-treated mice than in the controls. This indicated that AZD5582 had activated resting cells in the HIV reservoir throughout the treated mice. The compound did not cause toxicity in the mice or activate their immune systems.

The E-CIAR and CARE investigators also obtained 21 rhesus macaques, infected them with SIV and gave them suppressive ART. More than a year after the monkeys began ART, the scientists gave 12 of them weekly intravenous infusions of AZD5582 for either three or 10 weeks.

The level of SIV increased in the blood of five of the nine monkeys (55%) that received 10 doses of AZD5582 and in none of the three monkeys that received fewer doses. Thus, SIV levels increased in five of 12 monkeys (42%) overall, even as they remained on ART. SIV RNA levels in resting immune cells from the monkeys lymph nodes were significantly higher in animals treated with 10 doses of AZD5582 than in the nine monkeys that did not receive the compound. The investigators found AZD5582 treatment to be safe for most of the monkeys. The scientists did not detect a consistent reduction in the size of SIV reservoir in the AZD5582-treated monkeys, however, suggesting that it may be necessary to pair the compound with another agent to kill activated reservoir cells.

The researchers have begun additional animal studies to determine the best dose and timing of treatment and to be sure AZD5582 activates the reservoirs of many different HIV and SIV strains. It also will be important to test other compounds in the same class as AZD5582 to determine which might work best in humans, according to the scientists. If the results of these follow-up studies are successful, a preliminary clinical trial of treatment with AZD5582 or a related compound in people living with HIV may follow.

This study was led by J. Victor Garcia, Ph.D., Ann Chahroudi, M.D., Ph.D., and Richard Dunham, Ph.D. Dr. Garcia is director of the International Center for the Advancement of Translational Science, an Oliver Smithies Investigator and a professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Chahroudi is an associate professor of pediatrics in the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicineand director of the Emory + Children's Center for Childhood Infections and Vaccines. Dr. Dunham is a director at ViiV Healthcare and an adjunct assistant professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The other new report published today describes how a combination of two agents strongly activated the SIV reservoir in ART-treated rhesus macaques and the HIV reservoir in ART-treated mice with human immune systems. One agent, an antibody called MT807R1, depletes the body of immune cells called CD8+ T cells. The other agent is an engineered protein complex called N-803, a more powerful version of a naturally occurring molecule that activates certain immune cells to fight pathogens.

E-CIAR scientists obtained 35 rhesus macaques, infected them with SIV and gave them ART, which suppressed the virus in 33 of the animals. At least a year after ART began, the scientists gave seven monkeys N-803 alone, 14 monkeys MT807R1 alone, and 14 monkeys both MT807R1 and N-803.

N-803 alone had no impact on the SIV reservoir. MT807R1 alone led to a moderate but significant increase in the level of SIV in the animals blood (their viral load). But the combination of MT807R1 plus N-803 led to a robust and persistent increase in the SIV viral load of all 14 animals even the six in which fewer than three copies of SIV were detected before the experimental treatment began.

CARE scientists at UNC replicated these outcomes in 23 mice that had been given human immune systems, infected with HIV and given suppressive ART.

In addition, investigators demonstrated in cell culture that N-803 could reactivate human immune cells latently infected with HIV, but that adding CD8+ T cells to the culture suppressed the latency-reversing activity of N-803.

Taken together, the findings illustrate that CD8+ T cells play a role in maintaining the SIV reservoir in monkeys. The scientists hope to clarify exactly how CD8+ T cells do this so they can develop a latency-reversing strategy that does not require eliminating all CD8+ T cells and is thus gentler on the body.

This research was led by Guido Silvestri, M.D. Dr. Silvestri is the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in comparative pathology, professor and interim chair of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, and chief of the division of microbiology & immunology at Yerkes National Primate Research Center.

CARE is funded by NIAID with additional support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, all part of NIH. E-CIAR is also funded by NIAID with additional support from the NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs.

NIAID conducts and supports research at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

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

CC Nixon, M Mavigner et al. Systemic HIV and SIV latency reversal via non-canonical NF-B signalling in vivo. Nature DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-1951-3 (2020).

JB McBrien et al. Robust and persistent reactivation of SIV and HIV by N-803 and depletion of CD8+ cells. Nature DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-1946-0 (2020).

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supported scientists reverse HIV and SIV latency in two animal models - National Institutes of Health

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MEDICINE

Pavel Volchkov heads the Genome Engineering Lab at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), that has several key projects, all of them involving genome editing mediated by the CRISPR/Cas technology. Discovered just a few years ago, CRISPR/Cas has emerged as one of the hottest scientific trends.

Thename of the coronavirus has to do with its distinctive crownlike shape, which you can observe with an electron microscope. [Corona is the Latin for crown.] Although sequencing reveals that the virus is closely related to a particular family, and there is a trend in virusology to abandon morphology-based names, we still use the old terminology.

The novel 2019 coronavirus or nCorona-2019 is very similar to the other coronaviruses. Itis particularly closely related to the SARS virus, which was behind the 2002-2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in China, as well as to the Middle East respiratory syndrome, MERS.

The genome of nCorona-2019 is encoded in RNA and is notably larger than that of is peers, enabling the virus to carry not just the necessary genes but supplementary ones as well. This allows the disease to hijack a host cell, reprogram it, and even disrupt the alarm signal alerting the immune system. Since its genome is contained in an RNA molecule, the coronavirus can mutate rapidly to adapt to new conditions. That includes evading the immune response. Unlike its DNA-based cousins, the RNA virus can also quickly synthesize the proteins it needs.

A virus normally does not seek to kill its host. On the contrary, it is favorable for the virus to reproduce and use the host for as long as possible. However, besides endowing it with the ability to infect humans, the combination of mutations acquired by nCorona-2019 has made it highly immunogenic. This does not necessarily end well for the host, because the side effects of a runaway immune system might prove lethal. Evidently, that can happen with the new coronavirus. Patients may get complications in the form of pneumonia. It is the response of the immune system to a respiratory infection, sometimes leading to lung failure and possibly death.

Confirmed patients are treated by a well-timed suppression of the inflammatory processes, until the immune system can cope with the infection. The outbreak in China has to do with the extremely high population density in the central parts of the country and the climate that is favorable for such viruses. An added factor is Chinas traditional cuisine, which originated in the tough times when most of the population had to abide by the rule of If it moves, eat it. If not, wiggle it. Preliminary data suggest that the new coronavirus might have been passed to humans from snakes, which are a traditional treat in the region. This is not yet confirmed, though.

As of now, quarantine isolation is the main measure for preventing the spread of the disease. The Chinese government has shut down local passenger transportation in the affected regions. However, the virus has escaped China, and public health watchdogs around the world are monitoring the situation at state borders. Rospotrebnadzor [the agency responsible for the countermeasures in Russia] has taken the necessary steps. Namely, rapidly identifying and localizing the virus carriers. The situation calls for attention to everyone closely contacting the infected individuals, because the incubation period can last several days or more. All incoming passengers from China and other Asian countries therefore need to register and disclose their whereabouts to Rospotrebnadzor for the duration of the nCorona-2019 incubation period.

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Russian expert is ready to comment on the coronavirus - Newswise

When enlarged under a high-resolution microscope, microglia resemble elegant tree branches with many slender limbs. As they pass by neurons, microglia extend and retract their tiny arm-like protrusions, tapping on each neuron as if to inquire, Are we good here? All okay? Or not okay?as a doctor might palpate a patients abdomen, or check reflexes by tapping on knees and elbows.

Back in 2004, Barres and Stevens were examining how synapses originally come to be pruned to form a healthy brain during early, normal development. Theyd recently discovered that immune molecules known as complement were sending out eat me signals from some brain synapses, and these synapsestagged with a kind of kiss of death signagewere destroyed. Think of the way you click and tag emails that you want deleted from your inbox. Your email servers software recognizes those tags, and when you click on the Trash icon, bing, theyre gone. Thats similar to what Stevens and Barres were seeing happen to brain synapses that were tagged by complement. They disappeared.

What they described happening in the brain, which they reported in the journal Cell in 2007, echoed a similar process that was well-understood to happen in the body. When a cell dies in a bodily organ, or if the bodys immune system senses a threatening pathogen, complement molecules tag those unwanted cells and invaders for removal. Then, a type of white blood cell known as macrophagesGreek for big eatersrecognizes the tag, engulfs the cell or pathogen, and destroys it. In the body, macrophages play a role in inflammation as well as in autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and Guillain Barre. When activated, they can mistakenly go too far in their effort to engulf and destroy pathogens and spew forth a slew of inflammatory chemicals that begin to do harm to the bodys own tissue.

Stevens and Barres werent sure what was eating away at these tagged synapses, causing them to disappear in the brain, but Stevens had a hunch that it might have something to do with microglia.

We could see that when microglia sensed even the smallest damage or change to a neuron, they headed, spider-like, in that neurons direction, then they drew in their limbs and morphed into small, amoeba-like blobs, Stevens says. Soon after, those same synapses disappeared. Poof.

Could microglia be the culprit at the center of it all, the macrophage corollary in the brain, responding to eat me signals and pruning the brains circuitry during development? And what if this process was not only taking place in utero? Stevens wondered, when she first saw microglia behaving this way. What if it was also being mistakenly turned back on again later in life, during the teen years, or in adulthoodonly now its a bad thing and microglia are sometimes mistakenly engulfing and destroying healthy brain synapses too?

You can imagine how you could have too many synapses, or not enough synapse connectivity, Stevens says, her hands spreading wide with excitement. And you can imagine, given how our brain works, if that connectivity is even slightly off, that could potentially underlie a range of neuropsychiatric and cognitive disorders.

When she landed at Harvard, Stevens and her postdoc, Dori Schafer, tried to get a closer look at what microglia were up to in the brain. Schafer injected dye into the eyes of mice, which she then traced down from the neurons in the eye nerves and into the brain. This made the brains synapses glow bright fluorescent red. Microglia were stained fluorescent green. If they saw structuresthe synapsesglowing like red, fluorescent lit-up dots inside the bellies of the green microglia, they would know that microglia were eating synapses.

Six months into their efforts, Schafer came running into Stevenss office with photo images flapping in her hand. Theyre in there! she told Stevens. The synapses are inside the microglia! We can see it! It was such a high-five moment, Stevens recalls. Microglia were like tiny little Pac-Men in the brainand brain synapses were in the belly of the Pac-Men! We felt we were on to something really wonderful, really novel. This was deeply important in terms of looking ahead to microglias role in disease.

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The Tiny Brain Cells That Connect Our Mental and Physical Health - WIRED

For centuries, stories have been told of people whose hair turned prematurely white from harrowing stress. Now, Harvard researchers have found a scientific explanation.

"Marie Antoinette syndrome" is the term commonly used to for the rapid, premature graying, because legend has it that the French queen's hair turned white the night before she faced the guillotine.

Mice get "Marie Antoinette syndrome" when they're highly stressed, too, so Harvard researchers studied them to figure out how stress can induce a permanent loss of hair pigment.

"We started by thinking maybe the immune system is involved," says Harvard stem cell scientist Ya-Chieh Hsu. The hypothesis was that under stress, the immune system attacks the stem cells that generate hair pigment cells.

But when the researchers tested it in mice with defective immune systems that couldn't attack, "They still got gray hairs under stress so that's incorrect," Hsu says.

Next hypothesis: that the stress hormone cortisol was killing the pigment stem cells. The research team tried removing the adrenal glands that make cortisol, but the mice still developed gray hair.

"So we know that cortisol is not involved," Hsu says.

Finally, the research team focused on the sympathetic nervous system the network of nerves best known for the "fight-or-flight" response to danger. Hsu says it just didn't seem like a likely candidate, even though it gets activated by stress, because the fight-or-flight response is temporary.

But now it's clear that "a very transient fight-or flight response can lead to permanent changes in stem cells," she says. "That is a much bigger effect than what we would initially anticipate."

The research finds that during stress, the sympathetic nervous system over-activates and so depletes the stem cells that make pigment cells. No more pigment cells no more hair color.

The paper is just out in the journal Nature.

William Lowry, a biology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who studies hair follicles, says we've long known there's a connection between stress and graying hair, but not what it was.

"This paper really nails that, in the sense of figuring out what different types of systems in your body come together" to produce the effect, he says.

And that mechanism could apply to more than hair, Lowry says.

"Is this happening in different organs? Is this the canary in the coal mine?" he asks. "I think sure. There's no reason to think that this is a one-off."

Ya-Chieh Hsu at Harvard says the hope is that understanding how stress harms stem cells could lead to ways to block that harm.

Also --- it's not clear whether the stress mechanism that turns hair white is the same as the normal graying that comes with age, but if it is, there could be a way to block that, too.

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How Stress Turns Hair White: Harvard Study Points To 'Fight-Or-Flight' Response - WBUR

Irving Weissman and Joseph McCune, Opinion contributors Published 7:00 a.m. ET Jan. 24, 2020

Severe Trump administration restrictions mean millions of Americans of all political and religious stripes won't benefit from fetal tissue research.

Last summer the Trump administration curtailed federal funding of medical research using human fetal tissue; the new rulestook effect Oct. 1. More recently, the administration addedrestrictions that are even more severe.

Immediately, important work at two NIH-supported labs in Montana and California that are fighting the AIDS epidemic stopped because they were testing new medications against HIV using mice with human immune systems derived from human fetal tissue. In the near term, all National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of research using fetal tissuewill likely cease.

More than 30years ago, we invented SCID-hu mice for biomedical research on diseases affecting humans, by implanting human fetal blood-forming and immune system tissuesinto mice whose immune systems had been silenced. The implanted immune tissues came from an aborted fetus, and allowed our otherwise immune-deficient mice to exist and be vulnerable to viruses that infect humans.

Tissues from living infants would not have worked;they are too far along in development and nearly impossible to obtain. This mouse model (and later versions of it) became the only living system, outside of a human, in which advanced therapies for diseases like AIDS and other viral infections could be evaluated before they were given to people.

Our work with human fetal tissue proceeded with the highest level of caution and vigilance. We received advice from bioethicists, clergyand government officials, which led to the establishment of strict guidelines that are still used today. No woman was asked or paid to terminate a pregnancy, the termination process was unaltered, and the women were asked for donation of the organs only after they had decided to terminate the pregnancy. Thus, obtaining the fetal tissue for medical research had no impact on ending pregnancies.

Since then, mice with transplanted human fetal tissues have been successfully used by scientists to identify blood stem cells and to devise treatments now availableor in clinical trialsfor cancer, various viral infections, Alzheimers disease, spinal cord injuries, and other diseases of the nervous system. Such diseases kill or cripple many Americans including pregnant women, fetusesand newborn infants. Many of them have only a short window of opportunity wherein a new therapy can treat them, and a delay can be fatal.

National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on Oct. 21, 2013.(Photo: *, Kyodo)

The Trump administration's new rules are tantamount to a funding ban. In academic labs, the experiments are done by students and fellows in training, and the new rules block any NIH-funded students or fellows from working with human fetal tissue. Those who imposed the banmust bear responsibility for the consequences: People will suffer and die for lack of adequate treatments.

Americans pay the price:Trump administration's 'scientific oppression' threatens US safety and innovation

At a December 2018 meeting at NIH,after hearing scientific evidence about alternative research methods such as the use of adult cells, experts concluded that the use of fetal tissue is uniquely valuable. Nonetheless, the administration severely restricted the use of fetal tissue, thereby denying millions of Americans the fruits of such research Americans of all political stripes, since deadly viruses and cancers do not care who you vote for.

These restrictions subvert the NIH mission, which is to advance medicine and protect the nations health. To the extent that it was motivated by the religious beliefs of those in charge, it bluntly transgresses the American principle of separation of church and state. As a result, both believers and non-believers will die.

Of course, all who take the Hippocratic Oathto "do no harm,"which includes all medical doctors, will always offer and deliver all types of therapies that are available.

Restricting science: Trump EPA's cynical 'transparency' ploy would set back pollution science and public health

However, we believe that thoseresponsible forthis de facto ban, and perhapsthose who agree with them, should personally accept its consequences. We challenge them tobe true to their beliefs. They should pledge to never accept any cancer therapy, any AIDS medication, any cardiac drug, any lung disease treatment, any Alzheimers therapy, or any other medical advance that was developed using fetal tissue including our mice. Its a long list, one that you can learn about from us here. Should this apply to you, be faithful and be bold: Take the pledge.

Irving Weissman is a Professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology and the Director of the Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and Ludwig Center for Cancer Stem Cell at Stanford University School of Medicine. Joseph McCune is Professor Emeritus of Medicine from the Division of Experimental Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The views expressed here are solely their own.

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If you want to ban fetal tissue research, sign a pledge to refuse its benefits - USA TODAY

In her mind, its as if she took a seven-month nap, with no memory of the lost time.

ALLIANCE Kertisha Brabson lost seven months of her life, but she has plenty of time to make up for it.

The 31-year-old mother of two is happy to be alive. Shes fortunate to be home with her children. And shes hopeful, anxious and restless about getting back to her old self as a soccer mom and dental hygienist, back to the way it was before.

I know nothing about those seven months, she said from the living room of her South Freedom Avenue home where she raises daughter, Diamonique, 12, and son, Perez, 5.

Brabson was in a coma for seven months after losing consciousness on Sept. 7, 2018. In her mind, its as if she took a seven-month nap, with no memory of the lost time.

We knew we couldnt give up ... shes got two little ones waiting on her, explained Brabsons mom, Kertease Williams. Gods hands were all over me, telling me what to do.

Her battle

Brabsons medical ordeal began earlier in 2018. For months, she wasnt feeling well and was fatigued. In early September, it got really bad. Her speech turned nonsensical. She got confused and lost on an attempted drive to Aultman Hospital in Canton.

She wound up being rushed to Alliance Community Hospital, then was moved to Aultman. Already in a comatose condition, Brabson was taken to Cleveland Clinic where she was diagnosed with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis.

Its the same affliction that had terrorized young New York Post reporter Susannah Cahalan, who wrote a book, Brain on Fire, in 2013 about her ordeal. The story was turned into a Netflix movie, starring Chlo Grace Moretz, in 2016.

The form of encephalitis that struck Cahalan -- and Brabson -- is caused by a virus that makes the body's immune system attack its own brain cells, leading to psychiatric symptoms, seizures and even cardiovascular complications.

Its cause remains unclear, though recent research is being conducted to determine a possible genetic link.

Still in a coma, Brabson was moved to a nursing home in Boardman. She was there more than a month, but began having multiple seizures daily, so she was taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital for additional medical treatment.

Aggressive treatment

My husband (Larry Williams) helped keep me going, Brabsons mom said. All the support from the community was amazing; and we were getting prayers from all over the world.

Kertease Williams wanted to do more for her daughter.

You do what you got to do, she said.

Her research led her to The Ohio State Universitys Wexner Medical Center. The facility has a Neuro Critical Care Unit, where doctors would work on controlling the 10 seizures per day Brabson was experiencing -- all while still in a coma.

Dr. Shraddha Mainali, an assistant professor of neurology and director of the neurovascular ultrasound lab at Ohio State, said the medical team attacked Brabsons case on two fronts:

Aggressive immunity suppression to control her disease while carefully monitoring antibody levels circulating in her brain fluids.

Aggressive treatment of her seizures using multiple IV drips, oral medications and surgery to help control her relentless seizures.

After about four months of treatment at Wexner, Brabson awoke from her coma.

It was April 7, Williams recalled.

She remembers the time, too.

I get a call at 5:10 a.m. ... they said Kertisha woke up, she said.

Story of hope

Dr. Mainali was thrilled.

Kertisha's case is definitely one of the memorable cases in my career and one of the success stories for our unit as well as the medical community, she said. It is not everyday that we get to see a patient wake up after remaining comatose for seven months.

Although her primary disease (anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis) is quite treatable, Brabsons complications along the way meant there were no guarantees shed ever wake up. It was anyones guess how much damage was done due to the prolonged bouts of seizures.

Her story is one of hope ... , Mainali said. And her outcome (of being alive and independent) goes to show how persistent and meticulous care can help improve outcomes in other patients with her condition, even when the disease is severe enough to make the odds of recovery very slim.

After she woke from her coma, Brabson received ongoing physical, occupational and speech rehabilitation, to help gain back strength and function. When she returned to Stark County, Brabson spent time at Rose Lane Nursing and Rehabilitation in Jackson Township to continue her recovery.

Brabson is back at her home in Alliance. She still goes to therapy. She sees a neurologist weekly. Her short-term memory comes and goes but is getting better.

She was so angry for a while; she wanted to be better right way, Williams said. I keep telling her its going to take time. And I think she realizes that now.

Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 or tim.botos@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @tbotosREP

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Alliance womans remarkable recovery from 7-month coma - The-review

Adenoviruses can result in colds, bronchitis, respiratory infections, croup (barking cough), ear infections, pink eye, pneumonia, stomach infections, UTIs, and in rare cases, meningitis.(iStock)

Dear Dr. Manny,

My daughters keep getting sick in elementary school. They always have colds and fevers. Recently the school put out a warning about adenovirus, and I was wondering: What is the adenovirus? What kills adenovirus on the surface? How long is the disease contagious?

Thanks for your question.

Adenoviruses are viruses that affect the lining of the eyes, airways, lungs, intestines, urinary tract, and the nervous system. They cause coughs, pinkeye, fevers, diarrhea, and sore throats. Typically children catch them more frequently than adults.

IS A CANKER SORE CAUSING YOUR MOUTH PAIN?

These infections are usually somewhat mild and go away on their own. But if someone has a weak immune systemor a pre-existing condition, these infections can be dangerous. They are very contagious, and spread through droplets from a cough or sneeze.

Adenoviruses can result in colds, bronchitis, respiratory infections, croup (barking cough), ear infections, pink eye, pneumonia, stomach infections, UTIs, and in rare cases, meningitis.

WHAT IS DRY FASTING?

You cant treat these infections with antibiotics, because they are viral, not bacterial, so prevention is key.

Hand sanitizers do not prevent the spread of adenoviruses. Rather, its important to wash your hands with soap and water. Dont rub your eyes or your nose in public places. Clean surfaces like sinks, counters, floors, doorknobs, cell phones, and commonly used toys with cleaner and water.

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The virus stays contagious long after someone recovers from an infection, and will infect any person with a low immunity.

Do you have a health question for Dr. Manny? Email us atAskDrManny@FoxNews.com

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What is the adenovirus? - Home - WSFX

What is pneumonia?

Pneumonia is an inflammation of the tissue in one or both lungs, usually caused by a bacterial infection. It causes tiny air sacs at the end of the breathing tubes in the lungs to fill up with fluid. The body sends white blood cells to the lungs to try to fight the infection, which helps kill the germs but can also make it harder for the lungs to pass oxygen into the bloodstream.

People with a weaker immune system, whether because of age, illness or disease. Babies, infants and older people, as well as smokers and heavy drinkers, are at higher risk. People with other health conditions, including cancer, long-term heart, lung and kidney diseases and diabetes are also at increased risk, as are those whose immune system has been weakened through chemotherapy or certain medications or because they have HIV/Aids.

They are typically similar to a flu or chest infection so would include a high temperature or fever, sweating, shivering and a cough that brings up phlegm, as well as a loss of appetite. Signs that it is more serious include breathing quickly and feeling confused or disoriented, which is mostly observed in older people. A sharp pain in the side of the chest, which becomes worse when taking a deep breath, usually means that pleurisy an inflammation of the thin outer covering of the lung has developed.

The vast majority of people will recover from pneumonia and return to good health. In milder cases it could involve a few days or a week of being unwell and then a steady return to normality. But in severe cases it can take six months or even longer to clear and it is a leading cause of death among old and seriously ill people. In a person in poor health or with a weak immune system, untreated pneumonia can cause oxygen levels to fall so far that body tissue is starved particularly in the heart and brain of the oxygen it needs to function.

In a healthy person, rest and plenty of water plus antibiotics if it is bacterial can suffice as their natural defences kick in. If symptoms are severe (more common with bacterial infections), hospital treatment will be needed. Patients will receive antibiotics and fluids through a drip, and may need oxygen to help them breathe. In very serious cases patients may be put on a ventilator.

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Pneumonia: what are the symptoms and who is at risk? - The Guardian

TOKYO Lurking deep inside some tumours are "factories" full of immune cells that help the body fight a rearguard action against cancer and are key to helping some patients recover, new research has shown.

In recent years, doctors have turned to a new treatment for cancer - immunotherapy - that works by leveraging the body's immune system to fight tumours.

The technique has largely focused on white blood cells called T-cells, which are "trained" to recognise and attack cancer cells.

But the innovative treatment works well for only around 20 per cent of patients, so researchers have been trying to understand why some people respond better than others.

Three papers published last Thursday in the journal Nature point the way, identifying a key formation inside some tumours: tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS).

TLS function like factories or schools for immune cells that help the body fight cancer, said Professor Wolf Fridman, a professor emeritus of immunology at the Cordeliers Research Centre of the Paris Descartes University medical school, who led one of the studies.

He said the cells need to be educated in "schools" - the TLS - where they learn to recognise and attack cancer cells.

Key to the findings is that T-cells are far from the only immune cells capable of taking the fight to cancer. Researchers found the TLS were full of B-cells, a kind of immune cell that produces antibodies.

"We have been T-cell addicts for 15 years in cancer," Prof Fridman said. "We analysed these sarcomas to see what groups they had and what's striking is that these B-cells appeared."

Dr Beth Helmink, a fellow in surgical oncology at the University of Texas' MD Anderson Cancer Centre, who worked on a second study, said the research had changed perceptions of the role of B-cells in immunotherapy.

"Through these studies, we find that B-cells are not just innocent bystanders, but are themselves contributing in a meaningful way to the anti-tumour immune response," she said in a statement from the centre.

The discovery is a surprise, as an abundance of B-cells in cancer patients has sometimes been seen as a marker for poor prognosis.

But the studies found patients with high levels of B-cells inside TLS in their tumours were more likely to respond well to immunotherapy.

Dr Louisa James, a lecturer in immunology at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, said: "This series of studies is exciting because (it represents) real progress in the treatment of different types of cancer."

Dr James, who was not involved in the studies, added: "In the short term, these results provide a new tool to help predict which patients are likely to benefit from treatment with immunotherapy and may also pave the way for improved treatments in the future."

There are still many unanswered questions, including why TLS form in some tumours and not others.

While it now seems clear that B-cells inside the structures play a key role in the success of immunotherapy, scientists are not sure precisely how.

It may be that the B-cells are on the front lines, producing antibodies that attack cancer cells efficiently - or they may be bolstering T-cells, or perhaps even doing both.

And not all TLS are created equal: The researchers found three categories, but only one type was "mature" enough to churn out cancer-fighting immune cells.

The research opens up promising new avenues, the authors said.

Initially, the findings could help doctors screen patients to see which of them are most likely to respond well to immunotherapy.

It could eventually mean more patients are successfully treated with the technique, said Professor Goran Jonsson, a professor of oncology and pathology at Lund University in Sweden, who worked on a third study.

"If we come up with a treatment that could enhance TLS formation, we could combine this with current immunotherapy regimens," he said. "Most likely, this would lead to more patients responding to immunotherapy."

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Scientists find immune cells that fight tumours from within - The Straits Times

Once-forgotten diseases have returned to the forefront of everyones attention after outbreaks like the recent Measles cases.

Unvaccinated children are around 25 times more likely to get contagious diseases like Measles, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

And unfortunately, unvaccinated children make up a large proportion of children in Michigan. According to I Vaccinate, only 59% of Michigan toddlers are up to date on all of their recommended vaccines.

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On a larger scale, the World Health Organization named vaccine hesitancy one of the top 10 threats to global health in 2019.

SEE ALSO: Whats Causing the Latest Measles Outbreak?

Misconceptions about the recommended vaccine schedule, or vaccines in general, have led parents to opt out or delay vaccines, putting their children and others at risk of preventable diseases, says Aarti Raheja, M.D., a pediatrician at C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital.

Some parents worry combination vaccines may harm their baby or overwhelm their immune system. This causes parents to delay certain vaccines or follow an alternative, or non-standard vaccine schedule.

The CDC refers to the alternative schedule as non-standard as opposed to alternative, which is how I address it with families because there isnt an alternative, says Raheja. No research has been done on non-standard schedules, so we dont know if they are safe or if a child would be protected.

The 2019 recommended childhood and adolescent immunization schedules have been approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Raheja adds: The recommended vaccine schedule is the only evidenced-based schedule that has been researched for safety and efficacy. It provides all the necessary protection that can be given to children with the least amount of risk.

Vaccines are added to the schedule based on when an infant is likely to be most susceptible to the disease. Administering vaccines at scheduled intervals provides the broadest immunologic protection to children when theyre most vulnerable, minimizes the number of shots needed and office visits.

Getting all the recommended vaccines at one visit provides the best protection. Studies have shown that spacing out vaccinations over multiple visits causes children more stress and leaves them vulnerable to disease, according to Raheja.

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Follow the Right Path: A Traditional Vaccine Schedule - University of Michigan Health System News

DETROIT (WXYZ) Health leaders from around the world are continuing to monitor the spread of the coronavirus, now responsible for the deaths more than 2 dozen people in China.

The outbreak started in the city of Wuhan.

Two cases of the virus have been confirmed in the U.S one north of Seattle and another in Chicago.

Tonight, were learning the CDC is testing 3 people from metro Detroit for the virus.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Marcus Zervos stresses that unless youve traveled to the affected region in China, or youve been near someone who has, your chances of exposure are very low.

The virus is contagious person-to-person, so its a good idea to wash your hands and the obvious here avoid travel to Wuhan for right now.

Zervos was just in Wuhan in November as part of his job with the Henry Ford Health System.

The city is building a 1,000-bed hospital. Theyre putting up a 1,000-bed hospital in just a period of a week, Zervos says.

Thats the city of Wuhans emergency response to the outbreak of the coronavirus, something Dr. Marcus Zervos with the Henry Ford Health System says presents a lot like the flu. It can also cause fever, cough, and shortness of breath.

For people in Detroit the risk of getting the infection is very rare. It requires travel to China or being exposed to somebody who has been exposed to the virus or has infection with the virus, says Zervos.

The CDC is now testing 3 people from metro Detroit for the highly contagious virus. But Dr. Zervos says Henry Ford, nor Wayne State where he also works, has been made aware of any extra precautions or concerns related to the virus.

Its a new virus, its something we dont have immunity to. And in that way, it can spread possibly pretty easily between people, says Zervos.

In response to the outbreak, U of M has issued a travel warning for china, and restricted travel to the province where the outbreak started.

Michigan State also sent out a memo to students saying that their following CDC and WHO guidelines, but that at this time no programs are affected.

Symptoms of the virus may appear between 2 to 14 days after exposure, and those with weaker immune systems are most at risk,

But Dr. Zervos says for the average metro Detroiter who hasnt been to that region of China, their biggest health risk this time of the year, should be the flu.

Zervos says the way doctors handle possible cases once theyre confirmed, is quarantine.

Right now, there is now vaccine for the virus.

Coronavirus normally starts in animals and then is transmitted to humans.

In this case, it started at a seafood market in Wuhan. And again, its shared person-to-person, so thats why you see so many people in china, especially using public transit, wearing those face masks.

Zervos says thats not a precaution he thinks is necessary here.

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News Extra precautions being taken in Metro Detroit to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus Jenn - WXYZ

A Nebraska couple have spoken of the horrifying ordeal their child went through as a result autoimmune encephalitisa condition sometimes referred to as "brain on fire."

Omaha residents Christina and Brian Beck first noticed that something was wrong with their 14-year-old daughter Meredith in December 2018, KETV reported.

"I mean, it was horrific. We didn't know what was happening," Christina Beck told KETV. '[Meredith] said 'I sometimes feel really scared and confused, and kind of like I'm going really crazy.'"

Suspecting that Meredith was suffering from mental health issues, the Becks took her to see a psychologist, who prescribed the teen anxiety medications. However, these drugs did nothing to alleviate her symptoms and her condition began to worsen.

"She's starting to act lethargic, she started to say she was hearing voices," Christina Beck said. "She would feel like someone was touching her back and no one was there."

The couple said that Meredith began throwing up frequently and also had extreme difficulty getting to sleep.

"We had no idea what was happening and truly, the pediatrician didn't really know and the psychologist didn't know," Christina Beck said.

Then one day the family received a call from Meredith's school saying that she had been found in a catatonic state.

In response, the couple took her to get an electroencephalogram test (EEG), which measures electrical activity in the brain and can reveal whether patients are suffering from seizures.

However, the EEG did not reveal the source of Meredith's problem. With Meredith often relapsing into a catatonic state, the couple subsequently took her to other doctors. However, none could diagnose her condition.

Eventually, one pediatric neurologistDr. Mary Rickardnoticed a tumor the size of a "deflated football" on her left ovary.

"Immediately, when I saw her, I grew very concerned," Rickard told KETV.

She diagnosed her with autoimmune encephalitis, saying that the tumor was causing Meredith's immune system to attack her own brain. Specifically, it led her body to create antibodies that attacked her brain's NMDA receptorsthe same receptors affected by the mind-altering drug PCP.

"Unless you know what you're looking for, it's sometimes difficult," Rickard said. "If it attacks NMDA, that's what the drug PCP works on. So think of a child acting like they're on PCP all day. That's what we're dealing with."

After discovering the tumor, Rickard booked Meredith in for surgery the next day to remove it, while also treating her with steroids and giving her a blood transfusion.

The treatment was successful and after about a month or so, Meredith had made a full recovery.

"The neurologist told us that 12 years ago, our daughter would have been put in a psychiatric unit and she would've died there... because they didn't know as recently as 12 years ago, what was happening or how to stop it," Christina Beck said.

According to the National Institutes of Health, autoimmune encephalitis refers to a group of conditions that occur when the body's own immune system starts to attack healthy brain cells.

This can lead to a range of symptoms, including impaired memory and cognitive abilities, seizures, balance problems, speech problems, vision problems, psychosis, aggression, euphoria, fear, panic attacks, compulsive behaviors, loss of consciousness and coma.

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Nebraska Family Tells of Daughter's Terrifying Ordeal With 'Brain on Fire' Condition - Newsweek