Australian researchers have discovered a key differentiation process that provides an essential immune function in helping to control cancer and infectious diseases.

Investigators at Leeds University have discovered that the proinflammatory cytokine IL-36gamma acts as a global early sensor of pathogenic invasion and discriminator of pathogenic and harmless microbes.

PERTH, Australia – Researchers at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Queensland have developed a way of testing whether COVID-19 patients’ immune systems are gearing up to fight the virus that causes the disease.

Researchers at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research arm of New York-based Northwell Health, illuminated the precise pathway from the brainstem to the spleen that controls inflammation in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). Essentially, the work demonstrates how scientists could use the vagus nerve to hack the immune system, enabling them to turn down the excessive response that underlies autoimmune disease without the use of biologics or immunosuppressive drugs.

Fever is a fundamental response to infection and inflammatory disease. This response is accompanied by innate and adaptive immune responses to confer a survival benefit during infection.

Partners Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp., which is based in Seattle, and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. have started sharing an open database that details the immune response in COVID-19 patients with researchers and public health officials. The project is analyzing thousands of de-identified patient blood samples submitted from institutions around the world and is dubbed ImmuneCODE.