Tag: Immune System

Chemotherapy For Cancer Could Soon Be Unviable Because of Superbugs

schwit1 quotes a report from MSN: Cancer doctors fear superbugs which can’t be treated with antibiotics will soon remove chemotherapy as a treatment option for their patients, a survey has revealed. Cancer patients are more vulnerable to infections because the disease and its treatments can stop the immune system from working correctly. Of the 100 oncologists in the U.K. surveyed between…

A Newly-Discovered Part of Our Immune System Could Be Harnessed To Treat All Cancers, Say Scientists.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The Cardiff University team discovered a method of killing prostate, breast, lung and other cancers in lab tests. The findings, published in Nature Immunology, have not been tested in patients, but the researchers say they have “enormous potential.” Our immune system is our body’s natural defense against infection, but it also attacks…

Scientists Find a Weak Spot In Some Superbugs’ Defenses

Researchers have found a new way to attack some of the bacteria behind treatment-resistant infections. An anonymous reader shares a report from Wired: In 2004, a 64-year-old woman in Indiana had a catheter put in to help with dialysis. Soon after the procedure, she came to a local hospital with low blood pressure and what turned out to be a dangerous…

Researchers Call Chronic Inflammation ‘A Substantial Public Health Crisis’

UPI reports: Roughly half of all deaths worldwide are caused by inflammation-related diseases. Now, a team of international researchers is calling on physicians to focus greater attention on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of severe, chronic inflammation so that people can live longer, healthier lives. In a commentary published Friday in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers at 22 institutions describe how…

Study Reveals How Two Strains of One Bacterium Combine To Cause Flesh-Eating Infection

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: A new study by a team of scientists that included researchers from the University of Maryland and the University of Texas Medical Branch used genetic analysis to reveal how two different strains of a single species of flesh-eating bacteria worked in concert to become more dangerous than either one strain alone. The study…

Measles has a devastating and long-term effect on your immune system

Measles makes children vulnerable to other infections and now we know why – it wipes a large part of the immune system’s memory of other pathogens Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2222038-measles-has-a-devastating-and-long-term-effect-on-your-immune-system/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

In the Pancreas, Common Fungi May Drive Cancer

A new study found that certain fungi can settle in the pancreas, where they spur the growth of tumors. From a report: By now, you’ve probably heard that your body is teeming with bacteria. Some 100 trillion of them live on your skin, in your mouth and in the coils of your intestines. Some protect against infections and help you digest…

CRISPR Gene-Editing May Offer Path To Cure For HIV, First Published Report Shows

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Chinese scientists have published the first report in a scientific journal of an attempt to use CRISPR-edited cells in a patient — a 27-year-old man who is HIV-positive. While the treatment did not rid the man of the AIDS virus, the researchers and others are calling the report promising. That’s because it indicates…

Giant virus has evolved its own kind of CRISPR to destroy invaders

The massive mimivirus is so big it has its own kind of CRISPR-like immune system to defend against the tiny viruses that attack it Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2214663-giant-virus-has-evolved-its-own-kind-of-crispr-to-destroy-invaders/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…