Carabin

The BBC is reporting that John’s Hopkins researchers have discovered one of the ways the immune system naturally restricts its own activity. Carabin is a protein produced by white blood cells, and places a drag on the immune reponse to an infection. Why would the body want to cripple its own immune response? [...]

Replacing IVIG

IVIG, intravenous immune globulin, is the intravenous injection of immunoglobulin G taken from more than a thousand plasma donors. For patients recieving this expensive, risky and time-consuming therapy for autoimmune diseases or chronic inflammatory diseases, there may be an alternative soon.
A small part of the current IVIG solution is responsible for disabling interferon gamma, [...]

Poison and M.S.

When good systems go bad, it makes for odd bedfellows. Cancer happens when your cells fail to self-regulate their own existence, and one of the ways we attack it is with radiation that hurts us as well as the cancer. In M.S., the immune system is the malfunctioning system, and scientists in Portugal [...]

Update: M.S. and Parasites

Earlier I reported some confusion as to the explanation given by the South Coast Today regarding the effects of stomach parasites on the course of M.S. in an Argentinian study.
Wednesday’s BBC report on the same subject was more informative. The comparison between the accounts is equally illuminating. When explaining the cause [...]

Krauthammer’s Stem Cell Showdown

Over the past couple of years the news has been full of the unbounded promise that exists in the world of embryonic stem cell research. Nary a voice in the mainstream exists that would forgive any limitations on stem cell research. It shows promise for understanding cancer, it shows promise in treating nerve [...]

Building a better pancake

Well, better if you have celiac disease. Sufferors of celiac have an autoimmune reaction triggered when they consume gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains.
Apparently, finding gluten-free foods with similar attributes to the grains we know so well isn’t that easy. The glutens provide much of the texture we’re accustomed to. [...]

Is your immune system just Really bored?

No decent blog long exists without grossly mischaracterizing a medical study. Today is my day.
The study in question suggests that MS patients with parasitic infections suffer fewer relapses than those without. 12 patients had the infection, 12 did not. Among the 12 that did there were 3 relapses over the 4 [...]

Mysterious Still

In the Febuary issue Nature Immunology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers uncover one immune system mystery and claim more lurk in the distance.
The question is this, How does the small intestine, a veritable biosphere of helpful (but still foreign) bacteria escape the heavy hand of the immune system that is supposed to repel foreign microbes? [...]

Antibody Therapy for Type I Diabetes

The suspect? CD137, a T-cell. The crime? Destroying islet cells. The punishment? An antibody specially tailored to attack CD137. The place? University of Pittsburg (and, uh, the pancreas too depending on your perspective).
In this case, the name of the game is prevention, not a cure. In mice [...]

Building a Better Lab Rat

 Forbes reports that researchers at the Mayo Clinic have developed an important research tool in the fight against Rheumatoid Arthritis, a lab rat that mimics the human course of the disease.  These transgenic mice have had a gene associated with R.A. risk in humans spliced into their genome and are showing expected signs of the [...]