Category Health/Medical

Immunologic history of type 1 diabetes.

Data presented at American Diabetes Association meeting describes a potential new mechanism by which the BCG vaccine may restore the proper immune response to the insulin-secreting islet cells of the pancreas. Presented by Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Immunobiology Laboratory and principal investigator of the trial, the findings suggest that BCG may induce a permanent increase in expression of genes that restore the beneficial regulatory T cells (Tregs) that prevent the immune system from attacking the body’s own tissue.

“Many groups are looking at the ability of BCG vaccination to reverse autoimmunity,” says Faustman, who is an associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School...

Clearance of SnCs by GCV reduces the development of post-traumatic OA.
Credit: UNIST

A recent study, led by an international team confirms that targeted removal of senescent cells (SnCs), accumulated in many vertebrate tissues as we age, contribute significantly in delaying the onset of age-related pathologies. This breakthrough research has been led by Dr. Chaekyu Kim of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, now at UNIST, and Dr. Ok Hee Jeon of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in collaborations with the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the University Medical Center Groningen, Unity Biotechnology, Inc., and the University of California, Berkeley.

In the study, the team presented a novel pharmacologic candidate that alleviat...