The COVID-19 virus may keep mutating, but new findings from Korean researchers at the Institute of Basic Science (IBS) offer a silver lining: human immunity is adapting, too.
Scientists at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have designed a group of synthetic molecules that could prevent the rejection of allogeneic cell transplants. Their strategy consisted of activating the immune checkpoints of different populations of immune cells from the cell surface, but avoiding the cytotoxicity of natural killer (NK) cells and macrophages that would destroy the transplanted cells.
Previous research has validated hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1) as a target in immune oncology, and pharmacological inhibition of HPK1 has been shown to enhance effector T-cell function and antitumor activity.
Abcuro Inc. pulled down an oversubscribed $155 million series B financing co-led by Redmile Group and Bain Capital Life Sciences to advance cytotoxic T and natural killer cells therapies. Specifically, proceeds will back the phase II/III registrational trial of ABC-008, a first-in-class anti-killer cell lectin-like receptor G1 (KLRG1) antibody for inclusion body myositis (IBM) as well as fund continued development of other clinical programs.
Interactions between the gut microbiome and immune system influence cancer immune surveillance, though the mechanism through which these gut-primed immune cells regulate peripheral antitumor immune response is not well understood. Now, two recent studies in Science and Science Immunology using mouse models and human tissue samples have highlighted a group of intestinal T cells with the gut-homing α4β7 integrin receptors that play a critical role in mediating response to immune checkpoint blockade cancer immunotherapy.
For Jeff Galvin, the CEO and founder of newly launched Addimmune Inc., HIV is not a condition that’s in the rearview mirror. It needs a functional cure to save lives, make people healthier and save money that need not have been spent. People wonder why it’s worth bothering to cure HIV, Galvin told BioWorld, when they are taking their medications every day and they are feeling pretty close to normal. But it’s not close for Galvin, who noted that there are side effects from taking the pills that can cause headaches, fatigue, nausea and diarrhea.
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are often recurrent. The organism does not always establish an effective line of defense that protects from reinfection. The key lies in two reservoirs of bacteria and how tissue-resident memory T cells (TRMs) trigger the immune response. A recent paper from the Pasteur Institute in France describes how these cells mediate immunity to defeat reinfection.
Regulatory T-cell specialist Dualyx NV has closed a €40 million (US$43.5 million) series A to progress the lead autoimmune disease program to the clinic and to take forward two other Treg-based therapies. The company brings together expertise in antibody design with understanding of the role Tregs play in supressing the immune response to maintain homeostasis and self-tolerance, preventing autoimmunity.
The data are early and from only seven evaluable patients, but results from In8bio Inc.’s phase I study of gamma-delta T-cell therapy INB-100 in leukemia patients who have undergone haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplant, presented at the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation meeting, were compelling enough to drive the company’s shares (NASDAQ:INAB) up 183% April 24.
Contrary to current opinion, genomic instability is not the origin of cancer in patients with short telomere syndromes (STSs), researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine reported April 2, 2023, in Cancer Cell. Instead, short telomeres appeared to cause memory T-cell dysfunction that increased the risk of a small number of tumor types in individuals with STS. Such syndromes can cause premature aging of different physiological systems.