News by Subject Medicine & Health

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital discovery of the mechanism of T cell exhaustion will lead to treatments to enhance immunotherapies against cancers and such viruses as HIV.

A team of chemical and biomolecular engineers at the University of Notre Dame have developed a novel platform to more accurately detect and identify the presence and severity of peanut allergies, without directly exposing patients to the allergen.

Young adults with a history of asthma are at a greater risk of thickening of the left ventricle, which can cause shortness of breath, chest pain, fainting, and eventually lead to heart failure, according to research published today in JACC: Heart Failure.

Mice exposed to second-hand smoke only during gestation undergo abnormal changes to lung structure and function that persist into adulthood, according to research published in the open access journal Respiratory Research. The study provides new insight into the role second-hand smoke exposure may play in predisposing unborn offspring to adult lung diseases.

Although genetic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis are known, little is understood about the environmental factors that contribute to the disease. This week in the JCI, a study led by Annalisa Pianta at Massachusetts General Hospital has identified autoimmune responses to two gut-derived bacterial proteins in the joint fluid of rheumatoid arthritis patients, suggesting a causal link between intestinal and joint autoimmunity.

It's a tiny marine invertebrate, no more than 3 millimeters in size. But closely related to humans, Botryllus schlosseri might hold the key to new treatments for cancer and a host of vascular diseases.

Their study suggests that while emergency room visits for shingles has decreased for those vaccinated against either the chicken pox (18 to 19 years old) or the shingles (60 years and older), the patient population in-between (ages 20-59 years old) has experienced increased visits for the disease.

Gene mutations accumulating in cells are typical of the development of cancer. Finnish researchers found that a similar accumulation of mutations occurs also in some patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have developed an algorithm that predicts T cell recognition of antigens and sets the stage to more effectively harness the immune system