Friday, December 20, 2024 | 09:10 AM ISTEN Hindi

Immune Systems

Natural immune system process of humans could be used to treat TB: Study

Human body's natural process of removing old and damaged cell parts could be harnessed to treat infections like tuberculosis (TB), reducing reliance on antibiotics, according to a new study. Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, UK, investigated genes important for bacteria to evade autophagy, a self-destruction mechanism cells resort to when stressed. Their study is published in Nature Microbiology. According to the study, from induced pluripotent stem cells, a kind of specialist stem cells and are able to become any cell type in the body, the scientists engineered macrophages, or human immune cells. Following this, they disabled these macrophages from performing autophagy using genome editing tools. The cells were then infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, bacteria causing TB. The scientists found that the infection took hold, replicating more within the edited macrophages and causing mass host-cell death. The results evidence the role of autophagy in controlling ...

Updated On : 24 Mar 2023 | 4:48 PM IST

Children's 'rushed' immunity makes them open to Covid reinfection: Study

Scientists have found that children's immune systems, unlike those of adults, do not remember the virus and do not adapt, and so when exposed to SARS-CoV-2 again, their body still treats it as a new threat, risking reinfection. According to the study, children have largely avoided severe COVID-19 symptoms because they have a strong initial 'innate' immune reaction that quickly defeats the virus. And now, researchers led by scientists at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Australia, have uncovered what this might mean for the immune system, the study published in the journal Clinical Immunology said. "The price that children pay for being so good at getting rid of the virus in the first place is that they don't have the opportunity to develop 'adaptive' memory to protect them the second time they are exposed to the virus," said lead author Tri Phan, Co-Lead of the Precision Immunology Program at Garvan. "Because children haven't been exposed to many viruses, their immune syst

Updated On : 27 Jan 2023 | 4:56 PM IST

Covid infection reshapes immune status depending on gender: Study

Scientists have found that the baseline immune statuses in men previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 was altered in ways that changed the response to an exposure different from SARS-CoV-2. The team of researchers systematically analyzed immune responses of healthy people who had been given the flu vaccine. From that data, they then compared the responses between those who had never been infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and those who experienced mild cases but recovered. The team led by John Tsang, an immunobiologist from Yale University, US, found that immune systems of men who had recovered from mild cases of COVID-19 responded more robustly to flu vaccines than women who had had mild cases or men and women who had never been infected. "This was a total surprise," said Tsang. "Women usually mount a stronger overall immune response to pathogens and vaccines, but are also more likely to suffer from autoimmune diseases," said Tsang. The long-term effects of ...