Immunology

Psoriasis affects some 7.5 million people in the United States, causing sore, itchy patches of red, scaly skin. In many cases psoriasis is not only disfiguring; between 10 and 30 percent of patients develop psoriatic arthritis, a painful inflammation of the joints. Current treatments, including different types of immunosuppressive agents, aren't always effective, and they can cause serious side effects.  Psoriasis has a strong genetic component; a child with two affected parents has a 50 percent chance of developing it; siblings have a three- to six-fold risk. But the genes responsible…

The American Peanut Council continues to work with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate which products may be affected by a manufacturer's recall due to salmonella contamination. It advises consumers that at this time, there is no indication that any jars of peanut butter sold in retail stores are linked to the recall by Georgia-based Peanut Corporation of America (PCA). While none of this product was sold at retail to the general public, some of the peanut butter and peanut paste manufactured by PCA is used as ingredients in other products. Some of the peanut butter is…

A new, late-ripening apple named WineCrisp carries the Vf gene for scab resistance but was developed over the past 20 plus years through classical breeding techniques, not genetic engineering - so anti science types can rest easy.    Being resistant to apple scab is a big plus for growers, said University of Illinois plant geneticist Schuyler Korban, as it significantly reduces the number of chemical fungicide sprays. "Apple scab is the number one disease that growers have to spray for – 15 to 20 times per season – so not having to spray for apple scab lowers the cost for the grower…

Ever since the 1966 Hollywood movie "Fantastic Voyage",  written by Harry Kleiner (with what is actually a pretty good novelization by Isaac Asimov afterward) and starring Raquel Welch as the most convincing portrayal of a scientist ever , doctors have sought a day when they could have access to the real thing – a medical vehicle shrunk small enough to "submarine" in and fix faulty cells in the body.  According to new research by Tel Aviv University scientists, that may be only three years away.  The blueprints for the submarine and a map of its proposed maiden voyage were…

Kawasaki Disease, recently in the news due to the death of Hollywood film star John Travolta's son Jett, has had some genetic variations identified in a genome-wide association study published in PLoS Genetics. The disease, the cause of which is currently unknown, is a rare childhood disorder that occurs mainly in young children. It is the most common cause of childhood acquired heart disease in developed countries.  Symptoms include prolonged fever, swollen glands, red eyes and lips, inflammation of the mouth, extensive rash, swollen and red hands and feet. Characteristically peeling of…

Variants of numerous DNA repair genes initially appeared to be statistically significantly associated with cancer risk in epidemiological studies. When the data from individual studies are pooled, however, few DNA repair gene variants appear truly associated with increased cancer risk, according to a field synopsis published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Because DNA damage is associated with cancer development, researchers hypothesized that genes required for DNA repair may influence risk of cancer. Initial reports supported the idea. A comprehensive review of the data has…

Raw milk advocates claim that unpasteurized milk cures or prevents disease, but no scientific evidence supports this notion. Testing raw milk, which has been suggested as an alternative to pasteurization, cannot ensure a product that is 100 percent safe and free of pathogens. Pasteurization remains the best way to reduce the unavoidable risk of contamination, according to the authors of a review published in the January 1, 2009 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases which examines the dangers of drinking raw milk. Milk and dairy products are cornerstones of a healthy diet, they say, but if…

The redox-active pigments responsible for the blue-green stain of the mucus that clogs the lungs of children and adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) are primarily signaling molecules that allow large clusters of the opportunistic infection agent, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, to organize themselves into structured communities, report Massachusetts Institute of Technology geobiologists at American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco. For decades, these pigments, called phenazines, have been wrongly regarded as antibiotics, generated by P. aeruginosa,…

Researchers have figured out why a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine used in 1966 to inoculate children against the infection instead caused severe respiratory disease and effectively stopped efforts to make a better one. The findings in Nature Medicine could restart work on effective killed-virus vaccines not only for RSV but other respiratory viruses, researchers say. They also say the new findings debunk a popular theory that the 1966 vaccine was ineffective because the formalin used to inactivate the virus disrupted critical antigens, the substances that stimulate the production of…

The immune system's battle against invading bacteria reaches its peak activity at night and is lowest during the day, according to Stanford researchers who based it on experiments with Drosophila melanogaster and reveal that the specific immune response known as phagocytosis oscillates with the body's circadian rhythm. They presented their findings at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco. "These results suggest that immunity is stronger at night, consistent with the hypothesis that circadian proteins upregulate restorative…