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Researchers may have found key to preventing asthma

Researchers have made a world-first discovery on how to prevent severe respiratory infections in babies.

Protection against neonatal respiratory viral infection via maternal treatment during pregnancy with the benign immune training agent OM-85

Incomplete maturation of immune regulatory functions at birth is antecedent to the heightened risk for severe respiratory infections during infancy. Our forerunner animal model studies demonstrated that maternal treatment with the microbial-derived immune training agent OM-85 during pregnancy promotes accelerated postnatal maturation of mechanisms that regulate inflammatory processes in the offspring airways.

Mapping the landscape of chromatin dynamics during naïve CD4+ T-cell activation

T-cell activation induces context-specific gene expression programs that promote energy generation and biosynthesis, progression through the cell cycle and ultimately cell differentiation. The aim of this study was to apply the omni ATAC-seq method to characterize the landscape of chromatin changes induced by T-cell activation in mature naïve CD4+ T-cells.

PPARalpha and PPARgamma activation is associated with pleural mesothelioma invasion but therapeutic inhibition is ineffective

Mesothelioma is a cancer that typically originates in the pleura of the lungs. It rapidly invades the surrounding tissues, causing pain and shortness of breath. We compared cell lines injected either subcutaneously or intrapleurally and found that only the latter resulted in invasive and rapid growth.

Fine-Tuning the Tumour Microenvironment: Current Perspectives on the Mechanisms of Tumour Immunosuppression

Immunotherapy has revolutionised the treatment of cancers by harnessing the power of the immune system to eradicate malignant tissue. However, it is well recognised that some cancers are highly resistant to these therapies, which is in part attributed to the immunosuppressive landscape of the tumour microenvironment (TME). The contexture of the TME is highly heterogeneous and contains a complex architecture of immune, stromal, vascular and tumour cells in addition to acellular components such as the extracellular matrix. While understanding the dynamics of the TME has been instrumental in predicting durable responses to immunotherapy and developing new treatment strategies, recent evidence challenges the fundamental paradigms of how tumours can effectively subvert immunosurveillance. Here, we discuss the various immunosuppressive features of the TME and how fine-tuning these mechanisms, rather than ablating them completely, may result in a more comprehensive and balanced anti-tumour response.

Towards a PBMC "virogram assay" for precision medicine: Concordance between ex vivo and in vivo viral infection transcriptomes

In this rhinovirus study, we first hypothesized that ex vivo human cells response to virus can serve as a proxy for otherwise controversial in vivo human...

Comment on "Drug discovery: Turning the titanic"

We propose that the molecular and cellular events that govern a resolving, rather than an evolving, disease may reveal new druggable pathways.

Intracellular growth of Mycobacterium avium subspecies and global transcriptional responses in human macrophages after infection

Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium (Maa) and M. avium subsp. hominissuis (Mah) are environmental mycobacteria and significant opportunistic pathogens.

Airway Epithelial Cells Condition Dendritic Cells to Express Multiple Immune Surveillance Genes

AEC-conditioned DC showed selective upregulation of chemokines that recruit Th1 cells, but minimal change in chemokines linked to Th2 cell recruitment.

Interferon regulatory factor 7 is a major hub connecting interferon-mediated responses in virus-induced asthma exacerbations in vivo

The objective of this study was to elucidate the molecular networks that underpin virus-induced exacerbations in asthmatic children in vivo.