Immunity Health News

Rosacea, a skin condition affecting an estimated 45 million people worldwide, is now thought to be caused by an overly zealous immune response, and not bacteria.

Researchers at the University of California at San Diego found

…that “too much stratum corneum tryptic enzyme and too much cathelicidin leads to the abnormal peptides that cause the symptoms of this disease,” Dr. Gallo said.

“Antibiotics tend to alleviate the symptoms of rosacea in patients because some of them work to inhibit these enzymes,” he noted. “Our findings may modify the therapeutic approach to treating rosacea, since bacteria aren’t the right target.”

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A recent study concluded that olive extract decreased pain and inflammation and improved quality of life in osteoarthritis sufferers. Taking the supplements also had the added benefit of decreasing homocysteine levels, a marker of improved cardiovascular health.

“An 8-week treatment with olive extract improved daily living activities in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and significantly reduced plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) and homocysteine levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA),” wrote lead author Catherine Bitler.

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A study out of Duke University Medical Center suggests that hostility in men may lead to an assortment of adverse health effects, including weakened immune systems, coronary heart disease, and Type II diabetes.

Researchers found that levels of C3, an immune system protein which is a marker of inflammation (the body’s response to injury or infection), were 7.1 percent higher in men whose psychological screenings showed the hightest levels of hostility and depression.

While the increase in C3 levels seems directly related to the subjects’ psychological attributes, is not yet known whether psychological treatment could reverse those levels.

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Almost everyone knows someone affected by Multiple Sclerosis.

So it should come as good news that scientists have identified two gene variants linked with MS, the first such a discovery in 20 years. Both genes are involved in controlling the activity of a class of cells within the immune system known as regulatory T-cells.

“We have identified a gene that increases an individual’s risk of multiple sclerosis by 30 per cent, and that this variant has an effect on the function of the gene. It is likely that variants of many genes are associated with the development of multiple sclerosis, so identifying a novel gene that is associated will be very helpful in understanding this complex disease,” said Simon Gregory, a molecular geneticist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

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Earlier, I blogged about the Kenyan prostitutes who were immune to HIV.

Having now quit the profession, they have become infected, and scientists are hypothesizing that it was their continued exposure to the virus which was rendering them immune.

Efforts to develop a vaccine remain undaunted, the scientists say.

Read the whole article.

Researchers funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation have used a new approach to rapidly develop and discover a malaria vaccine.

Using information from the recently sequenced parasitic genome, the researchers synthesized hundreds of short α-helical coiled coil protein segments (30-40 amino acids long) that are able to maintain their tertiary (3-d) structure. These proteins are found on the malaria parasite in its erythrocytic phase (when it passes from the liver back into the bloodstream).

Tested with malaria-immune human blood sera, the peptide-specific antibodies inhibited parasite growth in vitro.

Read more about the malaria life cycle.

Read the original research article, published in PLoS ONE.

An interesting blog report on an Israeli study of probiotic supplements given to burn patients. Apparently, in the patients who received the probiotic supplements, “a significant benefit of probiotic supplementation was observed, specifically in those patients which had burns covering 41-70% of their body.”

Furthermore, none of the patients in the probiotic group died of their burns, while five patients died who were in the placebo group.

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As people age past 50, their neurons begin to shrink, while other brain cells become more active. In particular, microglia — the small immune cells that sense injury and the presence of pathogens in the nervous system — have shown increased activity, producing higher amounts of signaling molecules called cytokines.

Researchers suggest that these cells may become dysfunctional as our brains get older. Because higher levels of cytokines have been associated with neurodegenerative diseases, scientists are paying close attention to the role of microglia in these disorders.

In older mice, the functioning and responsiveness of the cells themselves to an artificially induced immune response appeared to be intact in the aging brain. However, because the older microglia started out at a higher rate of activity,

their overall cytokine levels were higher. “Which means that the impact of having an infection may be greater on the older animal or older person,” says McEwen, head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology. In turn, that could mean that the same dose of certain anti-inflammatory drugs given to older patients might have a different result than it would in someone younger.

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About 4800 parents of autistic children believe their children’s autism is a result of vaccination.

Their theory is that thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative once included in many vaccines and removed from most in 1999, can combine with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination to damage the immune system. This damage, they said, can lead to autism, a developmental disorder characterized by speech and often severe social impairments.

The petitioners want access to the $2.5-billion Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund established by Congress two decades ago, and have brought their case to the Vaccine Court.

An arm of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the vaccine court consists of judges, called special masters, who determine whether people who say they or their children have been harmed by vaccines deserve compensation.

On June 26, three special masters finished listening to the first case in the Omnibus Autism Proceedings, brought by the parents of Michelle Cedillo, 12, of Arizona. In large part, the hearing served as a time for each side — the families and experts retained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — to present its first argument.

The court is expected to hear three tests and then make a ruling on those. If they side with the parents, the court is likely to set up a framework for compensation to the others.

Read the whole article.

Here’s a story to make you think twice about any new vaccines being offered in the neighbourhood:

A polio vaccine introduced in mid-2005 in Uttar Pradesh (India) by the World Health Organization has failed to prevent 56 people from contracting polio, and there is even suggestion that the vaccine itself is the cause.

The kind of blame shifting and selective follow-ups reported remind me of The Constant Gardener.

Click here to read the whole article.