chronic inflammation tagged posts

Putting the Brakes on Chronic Inflammation

Gregory Sonnenberg IBD
An overactive immune response can result in autoimmune diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Credit: Ella Marushchenko and Kate Zvorykina (Ella Maru Studio)

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine discovered a previously unknown link between two key pathways that regulate the immune system in mammals — a finding that impacts our understanding of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). This family of disorders severely impacts the health and quality of life of more than 2 million people in the United States.

The immune system has many pathways to protect the body from infection, but sometimes an overactive immune response results in autoimmune diseases including IBD, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple scler...

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Multiple Sclerosis Discovery could End Disease’s Chronic Inflammation

Cell type key to successful immunotherapies for chronic viral infections identified
Diagram of the finding. Credit: Cell Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112123

University of Virginia Health neuroscientists have discovered a potential way to disrupt the chronic inflammation responsible for multiple sclerosis.

UVA’s new study identifies a vital contributor to the hyperactive autoimmune response and neuroinflammation that are the hallmarks of MS. Blocking this lynchpin in a research model of MS alleviated the inflammation, giving researchers a prime target in developing new treatments for multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.

The research was conducted by Andrea Merchak, a doctoral candidate in neuroscience, and her colleagues in the lab of Alban Gaultier of the University of Virginia School of Medicine’s Department of Neuroscience and its Ce...

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Exercising Muscle combats Chronic Inflammation on its own

Four square images, three of detailed fibers stained red and green, one a line graph
Long, thin, well-defined muscle fibers (top left) are in shambles after prolonged inflammation (top right), but maintain their structure (bottom left) and strength (bottom right) when exercised during the inflammation.

Exercising lab-grown human muscle autonomously blocks the damaging effects of interferon gamma. Biomedical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated that human muscle has an innate ability to ward off the damaging effects of chronic inflammation when exercised. The discovery was made possible through the use of lab-grown, engineered human muscle, demonstrating the potential power of the first-of-its-kind platform in such research endeavors.

The results appear online on January 22 in the journal Science Advances.

“Lots of processes are taking place throughout t...

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Molecular ‘Switch’ Reverses Chronic Inflammation and Aging

A molecular modeling image showing the detector portion of the NLRP3 inflammasome in red, magenta, and yellow
The NLRP3 receptor protein is responsible for detecting potential pathogens in the body and launching an immune response. (Image by MLGProGamer123 via Wikimedia Commons)

Chronic inflammation, which results when old age, stress or environmental toxins keep the body’s immune system in overdrive, can contribute to a variety of devastating diseases, from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to diabetes and cancer.

Now, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a molecular “switch” that controls the immune machinery responsible for chronic inflammation in the body. The finding, which appears online Feb. 6 in the journal Cell Metabolism, could lead to new ways to halt or even reverse many of these age-related conditions.

“My lab is very interested in unde...

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