Category Health/Medical

The immune system produces antibodies finely tuned to antigens. Recent research describes how the interaction between T cells (green) and B cells (blue) allows this to take place. Bystander B cells and antigen appear in red.
Credit: Laboratory of Molecular Immunology at The Rockefeller University

Cell Division speeds up as part of antibody selection. Mechanisms that favor selection of B cells capable of producing antibodies with highest affinity for that invader. “2 of the mechanisms that allow high affinity B cells to overwhelm the others,” says Alex Gitlin.

During an infection, B + other immune cells form germinal centers in spleen and lymph nodes, where B cells evolve in a Darwinian-like fashion...

Dr. Folmer is a research investigator with the National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research at the VA Portland Health Care System and associate professor of Otolarynology/Head and Neck Surgery in the OHSU School of Medicine.
Credit: National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research at the VA Portland Health Care System/OHSU

This depression Rx tool holds tremendous promise for patients with debilitating condition. In the largest US clinical trial of its kind researchers found that transcranial magnetic stimulation significantly improved tinnitus symptoms for more than half of study participants.

“For some study participants, this was the first time in years that they experienced any relief in symptoms...

Salk researchers have generated disease-free stem cells from patients with mitochondrial disease that can be converted into any cell type including neuronal progenitors (left) or heart cells (right). These could potentially be used for future transplantation into patients.
Credit: Salk Institute

Healthy stem cells differentiate into any cell type for potential cures including brain, muscle, eye and heart cells which would improve the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world with debilitating mitochondrial diseases. “Right now, there are no cures for mitochondrial diseases,” says Prof Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte from Salk’s Gene Expression Lab. “Very recently, we’ve developed ways to prevent these diseases, so it was natural to next ask how we could treat them.”

Mitochondria...

Scientists from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) and McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States have found that existing anti-malaria drugs could be a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

Currently, there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, which affects 10 million people worldwide. Prof Kwang-Soo Kim from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School and A/Prof Yoon Ho Sup from NTU’s School of Biological Sciences, showed that by activating Nurr1, a class of proteins found in the brain, it protects the brain’s ability to generate dopamine neurons, for dopamine products for motor control and movement of muscles in the body.

In lab tests, the scientists found that by activating Nurr1, the rats which had Parkinson’s disease appeared to...