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Allergy and immunology news

Disease tolerance research points to treatments that limit infection damage instead of killing microbes

Two identical mice experience the same deadly infection. One survives, while the other dies. Why? Scientists long thought the answer lay in the pathogen burden—the amount of harmful bacteria present in the body. They assumed ...

Lung tumor bacteria plus vitamin B2 metabolite may boost immune response to cancer

Bacteria in lung tumors may boost the activation of innate immune cells in the presence of a common vitamin metabolite, according to a preclinical study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel ...

Math and medicine join forces to solve a cancer mystery

Immunotherapy has transformed outcomes for many cancer patients. Unlike conventional treatments, these therapies do not attack tumors directly. Instead, they enable the body's immune system to identify and kill cancer cells ...

Newly found 'immune organ' inside skull directs brain defense

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered lymph node-like structures in the skull bone marrow of mice for the first time and demonstrated that they act as rapid first responders ...

Does your immune system learn like AI?

Could AI hold the key to answering questions that have stumped doctors and scientists for decades? A recent study at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) borrows concepts from machine learning to address an age-old riddle ...

An immune defect that may set Crohn's disease in motion

Crohn's disease, a condition characterized by widespread inflammation in the gut, may arise from a weakened immune response, according to new research from the University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

New approach opens rare immune cells to genetic risk research

Much of how genetic risk leads to disease has remained hidden. In many cases, genetic variants linked to disease do not act on nearby genes along the chromosome. Instead, they influence genes located far away along the DNA ...

What a 'silenced' chromosome can tell us about autoimmunity

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the most common form of lupus, is an autoimmune disorder that occurs more frequently in women. Having multiple X chromosomes has been associated with an increased risk of developing lupus; ...

Mapping the hidden rules of a key immune sensor

The immune system depends on molecular alarms that detect danger inside cells. One of these alarms is STING, short for "stimulator of interferon genes." STING helps cells respond to infections, damaged DNA and cancer. When ...

Gut fungi may hold the key to treating asthma worldwide

Two new studies jointly published in Nature Communications reveal that certain species of fungi in the gut play a key role in the development of immune dysregulation and some pediatric allergic diseases—and may be promising ...

Why pollution affects some asthma patients more than others

For many people with asthma, air-quality advisories are harbingers of worsening symptoms. But for reasons science has struggled to explain, the extent to which pollution exacerbates asthma varies widely from person to person.

How RSV manipulates the immune response in respiratory cells

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can cause severe lower respiratory tract infections, particularly in newborns and older adults. How the virus manages to evade the immune system and what changes it triggers in infected cells ...

Can we cure asthma? Yes, and we have a plan

Asthma is conventionally viewed as "treatable but incurable." In other words, we can manage its symptoms but not reverse the underlying condition. But advances in science are challenging this view, and we think a cure may ...

Neuroimmune abnormalities may play a key role in fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a complex disorder characterized primarily by chronic widespread pain, fatigue and other physical and cognitive symptoms. Although it affects millions of people worldwide, the underlying biological mechanisms ...

New tool maps how T cells move within tumors

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center led a study to develop a computational method that reveals how immune cells navigate the complex environment inside tumors, offering insights that could inform future cancer therapies. ...