Immun

Immunosupressants for Eczema

Here's to all of you who thought that one only uses corticosteroids for skin disease. Yet, the host of drugs that have come out in the recent years which are dermatocentric are astounding and here is another. Using Tacrolimus, the agent which was devised for liver transplantation, there has been found to vast symptomatic relief of patients. Eczema is a devastating disease because of its chronicit...

Spirulina may be the next immune boost on the block

News is out that Spirulina may be the wonder drug we are all looking out for. According to Journal of Medicinal Food, Spirulina , significantly increases the cytokine production in cultured immune system cells. To evaluate the effects of spirulina on the immune system, immunologists at UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center collected blood samples from 12 healthy volunteers and incubated...

Stress reduces your immunity- startling but true!!!!!

In a startling expose, new research into how our immunity works says stress reduces our immunity and makes us more vulnerable to diseases. For long we have agreed that stress is bad for our health but this aspect of stress decreasing our immune status is sure to cause a lot of concern. With the advent of HIV/AIDS and other immune-disorder related conditions claming many victims every...

Omega-3 fatty acids impair immunity

Taking large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids may be unwise for those with weakened immunity.Researchers at the University of Missouri, Columbia, have been studying omega-3s for many years now and know that one of their effects is to damp down inflammation. That's why fish oils - rich in omega-3s - often benefit those with arthritis, a painful inflammatory condition of the joints. Yet the inflamm...

Higher Risk of Asthma in children with autoimmune disease

A new study has found that children with some autoimmune diseases have an increased risk of asthma. In the study, Dr. Jukka Kero of Ruprecht-Karls-University at Heidelberg in Germany and colleagues//looked at health records for all children born in Finland in 1987, including more than 60,000 youngsters.The team checked the prevalence of asthma in children with three autoimmune conditions : celiac...

Immunisation to prevent cot deaths

A scientific study has suggested that immunisation can protect against cot deaths in babies.Sudden infant death syndrome is still the leading cause of death in children over one month old,//even though advice given to mothers about babies'sleeping position has dramatically reduced the numbers of deaths. Scientists from Bristol University looked at more than 470,000 cot death cases fro...

Immune cells halt round in space

An immune cell swallows a small capsule-shaped bacteria. The immune cells which help protect us from disease does not generally work the way they should in space travellers and it could be something to do with their shape. Researchers at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) have been studying how immune cells behave in microgravity as part of their research on the health effects of space on astrona...

Teaching the immune system to fight diseases is the key to reducing childhood infections

Immunity refers to the natural ability of the body to fight against specific diseases. The development of this natural ability is to a certain extent dependent on exposure to agents that cause the disease.// On exposure to a pathogen, the body is capable of recognizing it the next time an infection occurs and combat it more effectively than the earlier exposure. This theory holds good...

Hepatitis B Vaccine To Be Included In National Immunization Programme

India's Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss Monday said that the government would include Hepatitis B vaccination under its national immunisation programme// as it has been emerging as a "problem greater than AIDS." Addressing the valedictory function of an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-World Health Organisation (WHO) organised training workshop on laboratory diagnosis of lepto...

Gold Therapy- A Potential Treatment For Autoimmune Diseases

A new research has highlighted the use of platinum and gold in the treatment of autoimmune disorders. The mechanism of how gold helps in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases // has remained a mystery. It has now been found that platinum or gold can prevent the disease-causing microorganism (bacteria and virus) from taking hold of an important immune system protein....

Severe stress weakens immunity

People undergoing oppressive stress have measurable anomalies in their immune system that make them more vulnerable to illness. It's widely believed that stress may impair health, although the underlying// mechanisms are not clear. Now researchers at Washington University in the US reveal that exposure to chronic stress has a specific effect on immunity. When an inflammatory response...

Immune function could benefit from exercise

Several studies in the past have shown that exercise could benefit both the young and the old in more ways than one. A new study has now shown that exercise not only helps the elderly in protecting their bones, it also helps boost the immune function, thus reducing the risk of Upper Respiratory Infections(URI). URIs, which could be caused by virus, bacteria// or other organisms, are the most comm...

Anthrax hammers immune system

The anthrax bug swiftly disarms the sentinels of the body's immune system, hampering the body's ability to defend against the potentially lethal bioterrorism agent, a new study shows. The results suggest medical treatment to boost the immune system at the earliest stages of infection could counteract the toxin that anthrax produces in its initial attack. Antibiotics, like Cipro, could be used in...

Reviving the Immune System

Stem cell transplants have become an increasingly common procedure for hard-to-treat cancers. The goal is to restore the immune system. But it can take months or even years for stem cells// to become immune cells, and during that time the patient is at risk for serious infection. Now, researchers have taken cell transplants one step further with incredible results. Ed Bauter was diagnos...

Wrestling found To Be Good for the Immune System

If your son loves wrestling you might want to get him involved in wrestling early, and it may significantly boost his immune system.// A new study reveals the levels of all groups of white blood cells rose significantly, particularly natural killer cells, in boys ages 14 to 18 after a one-and-a-half hour session of wrestling practice. Investigators also tested the circulating levels of...

Asbestos Exposure Associated With An Increased Risk For Autoimmune Disease

Asbestos exposure has long been associated with cancers, fibrosis and other diseases. Based on findings of a recent study researchers say // exposure to asbestos may lay the groundwork for future autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Researchers examined 50 residents from Libby, which is known to be polluted by asbestos. They found these residents were...

New Oral Medication That Could Arrest Autoimmune Diseases In its early Stages

Researchers say they have found a way to prevent type 1 diabetes in rats that are generally prone to develop the disease. In the past researchers discovered the human protein zonulin and found it is produced // in very large amounts in people with autoimmune diseases. This overproduction triggers a number of other reactions that lead to the production of antibodies that can destroy insulin-produc...

Parasitic infections and human immunity link found

Parasites infect human beings and the human body starts on its immunity system to fight the infection.// Till recently, little was known about how the parasitic infections are fought by the human immunity system. A recent research done by the researchers of Yale School of Medicine had identified a molecule that triggers the immune system and helps the body fight the infections caused by the paras...

Human immunity system can battle HIV.

New research had showed that it is possible to use the human cells immune process to act on a part of HIVs //genetic makeup. This is for the first time scientists feel that it may be possible to target a part of HIV to destroy the virus in a novel HIV therapy. The process is called RNA silencing and is often a common phenomenon in plants and animals, only it was not known for humans.<b...

New clues about immune system from leprosy microbes

Scientists from UCLA and Harvard School of Medicine have successfully discovered how the body’s immune system// fights in limiting the control of infections like leprosy in some cases but not in others. The research says that the body’s initial immune system often fights with the infections in the initial stages and sometimes succeeds in controlling them. Only when they are unable to c...

Low immunity in people with multiple sclerosis may be genetical

People who have low immunity that had lead to inability to curbing of inflammatory cells// and cause multiple sclerosis may have genes that act likewise. Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University have reported that the FOXP3 gene may be responsible for the low immune problem that leads to progress of multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic neurological disease of...

Gene responsible for immune deficiency discovered

Expression of gene may be responsible for various immune deficiency syndromes, and researchers// have been able to find the genes that cause two different form of immune deficiency conditions called immunoglobulin A (IgA) deficiency and Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID). Immune deficiency syndrome may be hereditary or acquired. Hereditary or primary immune deficiency diseases are...

Immune Boost With LHRH To Help Cancer And Transplant Patients

A simple technique to rejuvenate the immune system, to increase its output and enhance response of the T cells has been developed by Australian scientists. This could help cancer and HIV patients fight their disease// better. It is also hoped to reduce the risk of rejection in transplant patients. Materialization of the above concept would mean that the donated organ will be better toler...

Researchers Feel The Need For Standards Of Practice In Immunoglobulin Therapy

Nursing specialists feel that there is a requirement for having a standard of practice in immunoglobulin therapy. A review article published in the July/August 2005 Journal of Infusion Nursing examines the need for established treatment guidelines // to support doctors and nurses in correctly dosing and administering intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) as replacement therapy in patients w...

Researchers Find Out The Cause Of Immune Attacks Behind Hearing Loss

Researchers from University of Michigan had identified a protein that triggered the antibodies in patients suffering from autoimmune sensori-neural hearing loss or AISNHL.// In the August issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, researchers reports results from a study of 63 people with rapidly progressing hearing loss in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Indiana, and...

Immunosuppressive drug shows promise in treatment of eye disorder

It is a routine practice to prescribe drugs called immunosuppressant to transplant patients to prevent the transplanted organs from being rejected. The medical community has only been interested in worrying about the problems caused due to immunosuppression. Looking at the other side of the coin, there seems to be benefits as well.// It has been found out that the immunosuppressive dr...

Block Immune System Chemical For Treating Asthma

It may be possible to treat severe asthma now by blocking a chemical in the immune system. This chemical is present in huge quantity in the immune system of the patients with severe asthma. The study appears in the online edition // of the journal Thorax. Around one in 10 asthmatics have the severe form of the disease, which frequently requires progressively higher doses of steroids i...

Immunotherapy For Cancer Treatment

Dr. David McKean and Colleagues from Mayo clinic, is working on improving the host immune system by increasing the T cells by giving Anti-retroviral therapy with tumor components so that it produces immune cells specifically against the Cancer cells//. Anti-retroviral therapy has shown effective treatment against HIV treatment, by stimulating T cells against the virus by increasing the...

Cholesterol provides immunity against infection by certain parasites

For years biomedical researchers have known that high density lipoproteins, commonly called HDLs or "good cholesterol," are responsible for protecting humans from certain parasites. // The mechanism however remained unclear but has now has been uncovered by Scientists. Human HDLs work by serving as a platform for the assembly and delivery of two naturally occurring proteins that combi...

Immunosuppressive Action Of Fungal Metabolite - Gliotoxin

Researchers from Japan have recently demonstrated the first evidence that mast cell is a direct target of gliotoxin. Fungal secondary metabolites such as gliotoxin, an epipolythiodioxopiperazine toxin produced by pathogenic fungi like Candida and Aspergillus//, possess immunosuppressive activities and have been thought to contribute to pathology of fungal infections in animals and human...

$35 billion needed globally for immunization

Globally $35 billion will be required for immunization in the next ten years to save an additional ten million lives//. The money will go towards reaching more children with basic vaccines, improving health care systems and introducing new vaccines such as those for pneumococcus, rotavirus, meningitis and Japanese encephalitis, a UNICEF and WHO report released here revealed....

Health bonds to immunize the poor

The Global Alliance of Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) will float the first 'global health bonds' to raise $ 4 billion to make healthcare accessible to the poorest of the poor, and strengthen global immunization efforts.// The move will provide an opportunity to concerned individuals and groups across the world to become part of the efforts to make healthcare accessible to the poor, in...

More Funds Are Required For Immunisation Drive

As much as US$ 34 billion are required for immunizing the most deprived children in the world until 2015, according to Lob-Levyt of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI).// One third of this amount is required to be spent on vaccines alone. This will serve to reduce the number of deaths due to diseases like tetanus, polio, and measles. The GAVI meeting was attended by vaccine m...

Immune Response Of Human Beings Can Be Re-energized

The immune response of human beings can be re-energized to counter chronic viral infection, according to a study which has been published in the journal Nature.// The research also provides a plan to improve T cell immunotherapy and therapeutic vaccines. The CD8 T cells of the immune system are subject to exhaustion while combating persistent viral infection, and become less effective over a peri...

Autoimmune disorder caused due to mutation in cryopyrin protein

Professor Gabriel Nunez, Professor of Pathology, University of Michigan Medical School has reported in the Journal Nature that the protein Cryopyrin is responsible for producing hypersensitive immune response leading to autoimmune disease. // The protein Cryopyrin is activated by the bacteria against which the protein produces an immune response by activating IL-1 beta, which produces s...

Passive Immunization to prevent Bird flu infection

Fears of Bird flu pandemic is on the rise as there are new reports from Turkey which has shown mutation in the Haemagglutinin antigen fragment of the bird flu virus and there are several reports showing// resistance to antiflu drugs shown by these viruses. Scientists are working out plans of Passive Immunization, in which the antibodies is collected from the blood of the infected bird flu patien...

Weizmann Institute of Science says Immune Cells Could Help Maintain Brain Function

New research from the Weizmann Institute of Science throws light on cells that could prevent deterioration of cognition in old age. These findings appear in the February issue of Nature Neuroscience. Professor Michal Schwartz of the Neurobiology Department at Weizmann led the study, //which might have important implication in delaying the onset of cognitive deterioration in the elderly....

CCR5 Mutation Confers Immunity Against HIV But Not Against West Nile Virus Illness

A research conducted by Philip M. Murphy, M.D., and colleagues say that mutation in CCR5 (cell surface protein) protects people against HIV infection but increases the risk of developing West Nile virus (WNV) illness. // West Nile virus (WNV) illness is caused due to a mosquito-borne virus. This research as conducted at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)...

Antidepressant drugs interacts with Immune cells

Serotonin drugs which were found to be an effective anti-depressant is also found to interact with immune cells but the researchers are not sure about the mechanism of serotonin inhibitors on human health//. Assistant Professor Gerard Aherm and team from Georgetown University Medical center have found that SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) which has been found to be an...

Specific Immune Mechanism against DNA viruses

Professor Ruslan Medshitov and his Post doc Daniel Stetson have reported in the Journal Immunity that the host immune system responds in a different mechanism to viral DNA infection. // Viruses are classified based on their Genetic material into DNA and RNA viruses and researchers have found that immune response which acts in recognisation of these viral products in the host is differ...