The Immune System

EPFL scientists have demonstrated a new method to make immunotherapy more effective and directed against cancer. The team designed microparticles containing drugs that are only released when T cells physically squeeze them, on contact with cancer.

Oncolytic viruses selectively kill cancer cells, but this can be ineffective if it alerts the immune system. Now scientists have tweaked these viruses to avoid detection by the immune system, allowing them to track down cancer even after it’s spread.

A novel cancer vaccine is moving to Phase 1 human trials in the US after results from animal studies showed encouraging efficacy and a robust safety profile. A new study describes the vaccine as producing complete responses in 90 percent of animals.

New research has shown how immune cells produced in the gut play a protective role during MS flare-ups. For the first time scientists have shown how these immune cells travel up to the brain and potentially help shift a disease flare-up into remission.

Cancer spreads easily, and a common location for secondary tumors to appear is the lungs. Now, scientists at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have developed a way to treat metastatic tumors in the lungs, by attaching immune-baiting drugs to red blood cells.

Days after Pfizer revealed vaccine trial data, Russian authorities have announced their vaccine candidate is also demonstrating promising results. Experts call the Russian data encouraging, but caution the results are premature and based on low numbers.

The first data from Pfizer's Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial suggests the experimental mRNA candidate is more than 90 percent effective in preventing symptomatic disease. Experts say these results are encouraging, but it is still early days.

Scar tissue is an effective short-term solution to quickly patch up wounded skin, but it’s not so great long-term. A new hydrogel helps by triggering a regenerative immune response, so skin heals healthier and stronger without scarring.

A new study, published in the journal Nature, is describing the surprising discovery of a previously unknown gut-brain link. The research reveals certain immune cells that inhabit a protective membrane surrounding the brain actually originate in the gut.

Researchers are suggesting antibodies produced by the immune system response to SARS-CoV-2 decline in the months following initial infection. Testing hundreds of thousands of subjects over three months, the study raises questions over long-term immunity.

Researchers have discovered a new kind of immune cell with the ability to not only prevent the progressive neurological degeneration associated with diseases such as multiple sclerosis and ALS, but which may even regenerate and repair damaged cells.

A new study claims to explain the association between gum disease and diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even Alzheimer’s. The research demonstrates how periodontitis can initiate a systemic immune response that spreads throughout the entire body.