Immunology

Scientists have developed a new influenza vaccine that may one day eliminate the need for seasonal flu shots. The new findings were published in the inaugural issue of mBio. The current seasonal influenza vaccine is strain-specific, targeting the globular head of the hemaglutinin (HA) molecule on the surface of the influenza virus. This globular head is highly variable and constantly changing from strain to strain. Each flu season presents a different strain, making it necessary to adjust the vaccine each year. Researchers developed a vaccine using HA without its globular head. Mice were…

Bone marrow cells play a critical role in fighting respiratory viruses, making the bone marrow a potential therapeutic target, especially in people with compromised immune systems, say researchers writing in Cell Host&Microbe. They have found that during infections of the respiratory tract, cells produced by the bone marrow are instructed by proteins to migrate to the lungs to help fight infection. The data are published in the current issue of. The research team evaluated the immune response to influenza infection in the lung and blood of mice. The they found that in the days following…

Researchers writing in BMC Immunology suggest that the end of smallpox vaccination in the mid-20th century may have caused a loss of protection that contributed to the rapid contemporary spread of HIV. A team led by Raymond Weinstein, researcher at George Mason University, looked at the ability of white blood cells taken from people recently immunized with vaccinia to support HIV replication compared to unvaccinated controls. They found significantly lower viral replication in blood cells from vaccinated individuals. Weinstein said, "There have been several proposed explanations for the rapid…

For some years now a small group of scientists have been pioneering a revolutionary idea; that the vertebrate immune system could have a role in the regulation of iron in the body. Now a study in the journal Immunology shows that human lymphocytes (white blood cells) actually produce hepcidin, the most important protein in the regulation of iron levels in the body. What was unexpected was the fact that hepcidin affected lymphocyte multiplication, which occurs for example during an infection, showing that the two systems seem to be much more interlinked than even previously imagined. The…

Immunization against "swine flu" in 1976 might have partially protected some individuals from the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus, according to a new study in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Researchers found that individuals who reported receiving the 1976 vaccine mounted an enhanced immune response against both the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus and a different H1N1 flu strain that circulated during the 2008-09 flu season. It is unclear if the response was enough to protect against the 2009 H1N1 virus, but the study points to a lingering benefit. The findings also raise hope that those…

Last year, several studies suggested that individuals in Canada who had previously been vaccinated against seasonal influenza faced an increased risk of pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1). Those studies have undergone further peer review and researchers writing in PLoS Medicine say their conclusions may be valid, though more research needs to be done to confirm the results. The first of the studies used an ongoing sentinel monitoring system to assess the frequency of prior vaccination with the 2008 seasonal vaccine in people with pH1N1 influenza (cases) compared to people without evidence of infection…

Natural Killer (NK) cells ensnare dangerous cells, such as tumour cells and those infected with bacteria and viruses that are on the run with a bungee-like nanotube, according to research published this week in PNAS. The study shows that NK cells use this bungee to destroy cells that could otherwise escape them. Researchers are keen to understand how NK cells work because they help the body to fight infection and stop tumours from growing. It is thought that it may ultimately be possible to design drugs that harness the cells' ability to fight disease. It was previously known that NK cells…

Researchers have demonstrated the safety of a potential vaccine against mesothelioma, a rare cancer associated primarily with asbestos exposure. The vaccine, which infuses uses a patient's own dendritic cells (DC) with antigen from the patient's tumor, was able to induce a T-cell response against mesothelioma tumors. "[This] is the first human study on DC-based immunotherapy in patients with mesothelioma," wrote Joachim G Aerts M.D., Ph.D., a pulmonary physician at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. The findings have been published online ahead of print publication in the American…

New research published in Stroke has linked the risk of suffering a stroke to the presence of a certain type of antibody in the immune system. According to the study, researchers may now be able to develop a vaccine that can mobilize the body's own defence against arteriosclerosis and stroke. The study compared 227 individuals who had suffered stroke over a 13-year period with 445 sex and age-matched controls. After controlling for other risk factors (age, sex, smoking habits, cholesterol levels, diabetes, BMI and blood pressure), they were able to show that low levels (below 30 per cent of…

Self-Aggrandising Pseudoscience Castigated - Wakefield Struck Off By GMC Following the longest medical misconduct inquiry ever held in the U.K., Andrew Wakefield has been struck off by the GMC, the General Medical Council.  The GMC, an independant charitable organisation, is responsible in the UK for the registration of medical doctors and for the supervision of their conduct.  The GMC enjoys a global high reputation for its ethics and integrity. Brian Deer has exposed much wrongdoing by Wakefield and has been the subject of a (withdrawn) libel suit by him.  He reports in the…