News by Subject Medicine & Health

The lungs and placentas of fetuses in the womb -- as young as 11 weeks after conception -- already show a bacterial microbiome signature, which suggests that bacteria may colonize the lungs well before birth. This first-time finding deepens the mystery of how the microbes or microbial products reach those organs before birth and what role they play in normal lung and immune system development.

A study led by Dr. Pnina Brodt shows that the liver immune microenvironment reacts to metastatic cells differently in male and that in female mice and estrogen can indirectly contribute to the growth of metastases. These findings provide a rationale for further exploration of the role of sex hormones in female cancer patients and the potential benefits of anti-estrogen drugs such as tamoxifen in the treatment of hormone-independent cancers that metastasize to the liver.

Scientists at EPFL have published two papers showing how genetics affects the ability of different individuals to fight off gut infections.

Researchers led by Dartmouth's and Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Norris Cotton Cancer Center are studying a valuable target in regulating the immune response in cancer and autoimmunity. VISTA is a tempering molecule that hinders T cells in the immune system from activating against self-antigens such as cancer cells. Their new publication describes how VISTA controls T-cell responses.

Blood culture surveillance programs are critical for estimating the prevalence of typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, but cases can be missed when patients don't seek medical care, or seek medical care and don't have a blood culture test. Researchers writing in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have now calculated inflation factors that can be used to adjust these incidence rates to account for under-detection.

Whooping cough bacteria are becoming smarter at colonising and feeding off unwitting hosts -- whether they have been vaccinated or not -- strengthening calls for a new vaccine, according to UNSW researchers.

A young boy with a rare genetic disease that typically kills within weeks of birth is now 3 years old and in remission thanks to a collaborative effort.

The brain is a sort of fortress, equipped with barriers designed to keep out dangerous pathogens. But protection comes at a cost: These barriers interfere with the immune system when faced with dire threats such glioblastoma, a deadly brain tumor for which there are few effective treatments. Yale researchers have found a novel way to circumvent the brain's natural defenses when they're counterproductive by slipping immune system rescuers through the fortresses' drainage system.

A probiotic drink could become a promising new weapon in the battle against antibiotic resistant bacteria, after a team of scientists at the University of Birmingham engineered and patented a key genetic element that can tackle the genetic basis of resistance.

Glioblastomas are the most common type of brain tumor, and their prognosis is often highly unfavorable. A collaborative study by Jean-Léon Thomas, Inserm researcher at the Brain & Spine Institute (Inserm/CNRS/Sorbonne Université) and Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital AP-HP, and Akiko Iwasaki (Department of Immunology, Yale University School of Medicine, USA), has revealed the beneficial role played by the meningeal lymphatic vascular network in treating these tumors -- in the short and longer term.