Category Health/Medical

A mouse study found that ferumoxytol prompts immune cells called tumor-associated macrophages to destroy tumor cells. Credit: Amy Thomas

The nanoparticles, commercially available as injectable iron supplement ferumoxytol, are approved by the FDA to treat iron deficiency anemia. The mouse study found that ferumoxytol prompts immune cells called tumor-associated macrophages to destroy cancer cells, so nanoparticles could complement existing cancer treatments. The discovery was made by accident while testing whether the nanoparticles could serve as Trojan horses by sneaking chemotherapy into tumors in mice.

“It was really surprising to us that the nanoparticles activated macrophages so that they started to attack cancer cells in mice,” said Heike Daldrup-Link, MD, A/Prof of radiology at the S...

Eosinophil recruitment into tumour tissue is induced by IL-33 expression (C57BL/6 mouse).

UBC researchers have discovered how cancer cells become invisible to the body’s immune system, a crucial step that allows tumours to metastasize. “The immune system is efficient at identifying and halting the emergence and spread of primary tumours but when metastatic tumours appear, the immune system is no longer able to recognize the cancer cells and stop them,” said Wilfred Jefferies, Michael Smith Laboratories and a professor of Medical Genetics and Microbiology and Immunology at UBC.
“We discovered a new mechanism that explains how metastatic tumours can outsmart the immune system and we have begun to reverse this process so tumours are revealed to the immune system once again.”

Cancer cells gene...

Eczema

Infants whose mothers had a higher level of a particular type of vitamin B during pregnancy have a lower risk of eczema at age 12 months, new Southampton research has shown. The study is the first to link maternal serum levels of nicotinamide, a naturally occurring vitamin, and related metabolites to the risk of atopic eczema in the child.The researchers believe the findings support the concept that eczema partly originates as a baby develops in t he womb and could reveal ways of reducing the risk of the skin condition.

Dr Sarah El-Heis, the study’s lead researcher from the University of Southampton, comments: “Nicotinamide cream has been used in the treatment of eczema but the link between the mother’s levels of nicotinamide during pregnancy and the offspring’s risk of atopic eczem...