Immunity Health News

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.

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.

Read more.

Researchers from VIB and Ghent University are beginning Phase I of human testing of their new Universal Flu Vaccine.

that is, the candidate vaccine is being administered to a small group of healthy people in order to verify the safety of the product and to provide an initial insight into the vaccine’s effect on the human immune system.

While the external structure of all flu viruses changes each year through mutation — thus becoming unrecognizeable to our immune systems antibodies and requiring a new vaccine — all human flu viruses known carry the so-called M2 protein on their surface, and it is this which the vaccine targets.

There is much controversy concerning overvaccination. Keeping in mind that flu viruses cause 3 to 5 million hospitalizations and 250,000 to 500,000 deaths per year, and the looming threat of a pandemic flu virus like the Spanish Flu of 1918, perhaps this vaccine would be worth consideration.

Read more.

We all know someone — perhaps even the person smiling back from the mirror at us — who will swear as to the efficacy of Vitamin C as an immune system enhancer. Of course, they don’t really need to swear, because “everybody knows” that Vitamin C is good for preventing and healing from colds. Everyone except researchers, that is.

The researchers, from the Australian National University and the University of Helsinki, focused on research where participants were taking daily vitamin C supplements.

But their conclusion appears to suggest that the idea vitamin C supplements fight off colds is a myth. They found that only individuals under extreme physical stress, such as athletes and soldiers, stood to benefit.
Read the whole article.

Of course, colds aren’t the only reasons for taking Vitamin C. Let’s not forget about scurvy, and of course it is used daily in the body in a range of metabolic reactions. The researchers do acknowledge that taken in combination with other ingredients, such as echinacea, it may have unknown health benefits.

As if there weren’t enough things to keep pregnant mothers on edge, scientists have now discovered that women who contract respiratory infections during their second trimester have a 7 times greater likelihood of having a child with schizophrenia, as well as an increased risk of autism.

The good news, however, is that the scientists

found that it was the mother’s immune response that caused the problem, rather than the virus itself.

This means that they are

closer to a therapy to reverse the effects of viruses on fetuses.

Read the whole article.

In case you care about the welfare of all those poor mice whose immune systems are worked on for our benefit, news from the Times Online says that the new research will be done exclusively with computers.

Scientists are predicting an end to the era of human and animal drug testing, saying that computer models will one day become so advanced that they will be able to predict the body’s response to various substances.

The use of computer models would bring “unprecedented benefits” to medicine, and possibly even dispense with the need for drugs altogether, as doctors discovered ways to prompt the body’s own immune system to react to threats, rather than introduce artificial remedies, they said. Read the whole article.

(Forgive the Star Trek theme the last couple of days. I don’t know what’s come over me.)

As with red wine, stress can be good for you in moderation. But also as with red wine, too much for too long will kill you.

So go the findings of study by researchers from the University of British Columbia and the University of Kentucky, who reviewed nearly 300 research papers covering 19,000 people.

Stressful situations that lasted only short periods appeared to tap into the primeval ‘fight or flight’ response, which dates back to when early man was threatened by predators.

This response benefited the person by boosting their body’s natural front-line defence against infections from traumas such as bites and scrapes.

But long-term anxiety had the opposite effect. Situations that caused permanent stress and turned the person’s world upside down were damaging to health.

Read more.

A team of the leading cancer researchers in Canada are being funded $3.5 million by the Terry Fox Foundation to conduct experiments aimed at training the immune system to recognize and target cancerous tissue.

“Tumours avoid immune attack by convincing the immune system that they are normal, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” said Bramson. “Our strategies are designed to teach the immune system how to spot the tell-tale signs of the wolf. In this way, the tumours will no longer be able to hide, but the healthy tissues will be left untouched.”

Read more.

An Israeli biopharmaceutical company has developed a way to train the body’s immune cells to attack cancer by introducing “angered” immune cells from a donor.

The company takes T-cells from a normal donor and produces them ex-vivo in a nine-day proprietary culture process in a bioreactor. There is no need to match the donor to the recipient as required in BMT procedures. The AlloStim product is an intentional mismatch to the recipient. In the bioreactor the cells are activated with monoclonal antibody-coated particles that are removed before they are given to the patient.

“We provoke these cells, so that they become very ‘angry’ immune cells that are highly stimulated,” explains Har-Noy. “Then we infuse them into the patient. The patient’s immune system sees these new ‘angry’ cells as a great danger to the body, and rallies to the defense to eliminate the threat, releasing an array of inflammatory cytokines, in what is a bit like the fight or flight response of adrenaline.”

So far, this has only been tested on mice. Clinical trials on advanced cancer patients begin in 2008.

Read more.

The surge in both sales volume and variety of health-related foods and supplements over the last number of years has led manufacturers, as a means of cost reduction, to contract out their laboratory testing to other research companies who specialize in chemical analysis. This has resulted in a growing demand for such labs.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan’s North American Analytical Laboratory Services Market, reveals that revenues in this industry totaled $603.1 million in 2005 and estimates it will reach $743.3 million in 2012.

“In addition to steady demand from the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical markets, analytical laboratories are being boosted by government regulation,” explains Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Lakshman Koundinya. “Stringent government legislation and the mandated need to comply is increasing demand for the services offered by these laboratories.”

Increased testing can only benefit consumers (as long as the laboratories remain disinterested third parties).

Read more.