anti-inflammatory tagged posts

This is a fluorescent microscopy image showing accumulation of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE, red) in human dendritic cells treated with synthetic F. tularensis PE containing liposomes. Blue indicates the cell nucleus.
Credit: NIAID

NIH scientists see therapeutic potential against bacteria, viruses. National Institutes of Health researchers have identified a naturally occurring lipid – a waxy, fatty acid – used by a disease-causing bacterium to impair the host immune response and increase the chance of infection. Inadvertently, they also may have found a potent inflammation therapy against bacterial and viral diseases.

Lipids are known to help Francisella tularensis bacteria, the cause of tularemia, to suppress host inflammation when infecting mouse and human cells...

Highlights •Dietary fiber with vitamin A increases the potency of tolerogenic CD103+ DCs •High-fiber diet protects mice against peanut allergy via gut microbiota and SCFA •High-fiber effects rely on epithelial GPR43 and immune cell GPR109a •Dietary fiber promotes TFH and IgA responses

The development of food allergies in mice can be linked to what their gut bacteria are being fed. Rodents that received a diet with average calories, sugar, and fiber content from birth were shown to have more severe peanut allergies than those that received a high-fiber diet. The researchers show that gut bacteria release a specific fatty acid in response to fiber intake, which eventually impacts allergic responses via changes to the immune system.

“We felt that the increased incidence of food allerg...

“Our study found that individuals who took aspirin had a more than a two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half-fold lesser chance of developing bile duct cancer, compared to individuals who did not take aspirin,” says Lewis Roberts, M.B. Ch.B., Ph.D., gastroenterologist and hepatologist at Mayo Clinic.

Bile duct cancer is an uncommon cancer that forms in the slender tubes (bile ducts) that carry digestive fluid through the liver. The disease occurs mostly in people over 50 and can cause symptoms, such as yellowing of the skin and eyes, intense itchiness of the skin, and white stools. Bile duct cancer is an aggressive type of cancer that progresses quickly and is difficult to treat.

“We know that continuous unremitting inflammation is one of the main factors that promotes cancer of the bile ducts...

Bilirubin – Wikipedia

Mildly elevated levels of a bile pigment bilirubin may provide natural protection from heart attacks and help to stave off cardiovascular disease. The study shows that when hearts are infused with bilirubin following a heart attack, the pigment reduces damage and improves heart function during recovery.

“This is a very important finding as very few drugs are able to be administered following a heart attack to improve heart function,” says Dr Bulmer. “Generally, if it is a small heart attack people can survive. However there is a 20% mortality rate from heart attack, with approximately 50,000 heart attack sufferers each year in Australia.

“Generally, bilirubin was just associated with people having jaundice; however we have now shown that mildly elevated bilirubin is a...