Like a wayward driver slammed the brakes, a special class of T cells may limit the effectiveness of therapeutic vaccines for HIV by slowing the immune system too soon, the report of the University of Pittsburgh researchers at Health Sciences latest issue of PLoS ONE. Their study, the first to examine the role of regulatory T cells in therapeutic vaccines against HIV, could help researchers improve the effectiveness of these vaccines in the development of methods to prevent the brake mechanism of these cells.

Regulatory T cells (Treg) are essential because they prevent the immune system turns against itself by suppressing the immune response. Without the braking action of Treg, autoimmune disease can thrive. But if these cells are closing the immune response of a therapeutic vaccine had the opportunity to boost immunity against HIV?

(more…)

New research at Oregon Health & Science University Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute explains how a virus that has infected up to 80 percent of Americans can reinfect individuals repeatedly despite the presence of a strong immunity durable. The investigation is cytomegalovirus (CMV), which infects 50 to 80 percent of the population of the United States before the age of 40. Details of the new findings are published in the online edition of the journal Science.

For most people, CMV infection is not detected and not severely ill. However, vulnerable populations with immune deficiency, such as the development and infants, recipients of organ donors and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients, CMV is very serious and potentially life-threatening risk. Approximately 8,000 children suffer from disabilities caused by CMV each year.

“CMV is a type of virus that can infect a few individuals who are effectively already persistently infected by this virus,” said Louis Picker, MD, associate director of the OHSU VGTI and director of the immunization program is VGTI. He is also Director of the Division of Pathology and Immunology at the Oregon National Primate Research Center at OHSU.

(more…)

Women diagnosed with breast cancer within 12 months after pregnancy are 48 percent more likely to die than other young women with breast cancer, according to a survey by the University of Western Australia.

However, in a study of 3,000 breast cancer patients younger than 45 years, found that if the cancer is diagnosed during pregnancy, your risk of death was only a three percent higher than non-pregnant women with cancer.

Research Assistant Professor Angela Ives at UWA Cancer and Palliative Care Research and Evaluation has shown that very little is known about gestational breast cancer (cancer diagnosed during pregnancy or even a year later.)

“We decided to learn more to enable women to make informed decisions about your cancer treatment and pregnancy,” he said. With his colleagues, Associate Professor / Professor Yves analyzed statistics from Western Australia’s data link system – one of the few such systems in the world.

(more…)