News by Subject Medicine & Health

New Columbia study suggests current vaccines and monoclonal antibody therapies provide less neutralizing activity against the U.K. and South Africa variants of SARS-CoV-2.

A team of researchers from the CHUM Research Centre has identified new biomarkers associated with the severity of COVID-19 in infected patients.

Diphtheria - a relatively easily-preventable infection - is evolving to become resistant to a number of classes of antibiotics and in future could lead to vaccine escape, warn an international team of researchers from the UK and India.

Profiling the 'immune landscape' of patient's tumours reveals who will most benefit from radiotherapy with potential immunotherapy in bowel cancer. Effectiveness of radiotherapy depends on the level of inflammation in tumors, before and after treatment. Tumors which are chronically Inflamed before treatment could be made more susceptible using targeted immunotherapies.

Scientists at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, in a collaboration the Duke University, have confirmed that monoclonal antibodies can be an effective tool in the global fight against malaria, identifying two potential mAbs for further development. Decades of malaria vaccine research have shown low efficacy in field trials conducted in several countries in Africa. Many researchers around the world have now focused their attention on using mAbs against the circumsporozoite protein of the parasite.

RCSI researchers have discovered a new way to 'put the brakes' on excessive inflammation by regulating a type of white blood cell that is critical for our immune system.

A new study in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology found that more than 28% of surveyed women were given no guidance on whether they could eat the same food their breastfeeding child was allergic to.

Equitable implementation of COVID?19 vaccine delivery is a national and global priority, with a strong focus on reducing existing disparities and not creating new disparities. But while a framework has been recognized for equitable allocation of COVID?19 vaccine that acknowledges the rights and interests of sexual and gender minorities (SGM), it fails to identify strategies or data to achieve that goal.

This Viewpoint proposes ways to maximize vaccine efficacy and allocation given the rise of coronavirus variants and authorization of a Johnson & Johnson vaccine, including reserving the latter for younger healthier populations, boosting it with a single-dose messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccination and single mRNA immunization of people with prior documented SARS-CoV-2 infection.