Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules aberrantly induced by viral infection or inflammation, have been shown for the first time to form self-antigen/MHC class II complexes that initiate autoantibody production, according to a Japanese study published in the March 4, 2022, edition of Science Advances.

An analysis of brain scans of participants in the UK Biobank has shown there are significant differences between the condition of the brain before and after mild COVID-19 infection. These included a reduction in overall brain size, reduction in grey matter thickness in the orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampal gyrus, and changes in markers of tissue damage in regions functionally connected to the primary olfactory cortex. Infected participants also showed, on average, a larger cognitive decline than participants who had not contracted COVID-19.

“In 2015, when I started in this field…. people considered breast cancer a cold tumor,” Marleen Kok told the audience at the European Society of Medical Oncology’s 2022 Targeted Anticancer Therapy meeting (ESMO TAT). But the sensitivity of breast cancer to immunotherapy, or lack thereof, is “not a black and white phenomenon.”

An international collaboration led by scientists at The University of South Australia, SA Pathology in Adelaide, and the de Duve Institute, University of Louvain, Belgium, has discovered biallelic MDFIC pathogenic variants underlying the severe lymphatic disorder, central conducting lymphatic anomaly (CCLA), in seven people from six separate families.

By using engineered retinal pigment epithelial cells to deliver IL-2 into the tumor microenvironment, investigators at Rice University eradicated ovarian and colorectal tumors in mouse models, and elicited T-cell responses after implantation in primates.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital have identified peripheral neuropathy in more than half of a group of long COVID patients, suggesting that it may be a mechanism that contributes to multiple, seemingly disparate, long COVID symptoms.

A Chinese study led by researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai has described a novel strategy to target the "undruggable" mutant Huntingtin protein by screening for compounds that directly bind to the 'undruggable' target and rescue disease-relevant phenotypes.

Scientists at Osaka University have discovered that intercellular communication via extracellular vesicles from osteoblasts, cells that are specialized for laying down new bone, is a key factor for the transition from bone formation to resorption via a microRNA (miRNA)-mediated mechanism.

A study from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Karolinska Institute has shown that individuals who carry the major genetic risk variant for severe COVID-19 infection are less likely to contract HIV.