Autoantibodies are typically not good news. But a group of researchers from Bellinzona, Switzerland, have observed that the presence of autoantibodies against chemokines, a special class of cytokines, is associated with mild disease and less risk of developing long COVID. “Our hypothesis was that antibodies to chemokines, if they existed, would also be associated with a negative outcome of the disease. But, what we found, in fact, was the exact opposite of what we were predicting,” Davide Robbiani, director of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, told BioWorld.
Bacteria inflaming the meninges have developed an immunosuppressive mechanism that contributes to their ability to attack the brain. Researchers found that, by activating pain receptors (nociceptors) to release chemical substances that block an immune cell receptor, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus agalactiae deactivated the protective function of macrophages and weakened brain defenses. This, in turn, enabled them to invade the brain.
Allogeneic mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) therapy is well tolerated in patients with graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) but results in clinical trials have shown that it lacks potent immunosuppressive effects. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic thus proposed enhancing MSC immunosuppression by bioengineering the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) MSCs (CAR-MSCs) and targeting E cadherin (anti-Ecad CAR-MSC), with a CD28 intracellular signaling domain to induce antigen-specific immunosuppressor effect.
Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a rare chronic and progressive autoimmune bile duct disease that is strongly associated with several immune-mediated disorders, the shared etiology and underlying characteristics of which is not completely understood. Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine investigated the shared genetic architecture of PSC with a variety of clinical and epidemiological traits and aimed to identify new lead PSC risk-associated loci.
Even its name is a testament to how enigmatic the tingible macrophage has been. Tingible, which means stainable, certainly gives no clues to its functions – but was, at least, one thing that was known about the cells. Now, scientists at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have tracked the lifecycle and function of tangible macrophages in the lymph nodes, with implications for understanding autoimmune disorders, which are still poorly understood. Published March 2, 2023, in the journal Cell, the study highlights intravital imaging techniques the scientists used to observe how macrophages formed within the lymph nodes and how they behaved in real time.
Thymmune Therapeutics Inc. has secured US$7 million in seed financing to support its work in developing scalable thymic cell therapies to restore immune function in aging and disease.
Resistin-like molecule beta (RELMβ) is a gut-derived cytokine involved in both allergic responses and protection from pathogens, and it has been previously found to be dysregulated in mouse models of food allergy (FA). Researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital aimed assess the potential of RELMβ as a novel biomarker in children with FA.
It has been demonstrated that stem cell factor (SCF) and its receptor KIT play key roles in the differentiation, proliferation, survival, migration and activation of mast cells, which in turn play a central role in the development of IgE-mediated allergic diseases, including allergic urticaria and food allergy.
It is known that Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) is an essential enzyme for the FcεRI signaling pathway and is thought to be a target to prevent IgE-mediated allergic reactions. Researchers have hypothesized that the BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib may prevent reactivity to peanuts in patients with peanut allergy.
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