Immune system may prevents MRSA infection

Researchers at Johns Hopkins, the University of California, Davis, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have discovered how the immune system might protect a person from recurrent bacterial skin infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus (staph). "There's a huge, unmet clinical need for new approaches against staph skin infections because of declining antibiotic development and rising drug resistance," says Lloyd Miller, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of dermatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Staph is a common bacterium and the most common cause of skin infections in people. Additionally, multidrug resistant strains, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), are causing severe skin infections in healthy people outside of hospitals. And once you've had an infection, the recurrence rate is 50 percent within six months. Staph can also spread from the skin and cause invasive and life-threatening infections such as sepsis, osteomyelitis and pneumonia.

Using mice with defective immune systems, research team found that after an initial exposure of the skin to staph, they were surprisingly protected against a second skin exposure with the same bacteria. After testing for antibodies and other usual suspects of the immune system against this infection, it was not clear what immune response was protecting the mice. The researchers then tested a drug FDA-approved for treatment of multiple sclerosis, which acts by preventing certain immune cells from leaving lymph nodes for sites of inflammation.

That genetic sequencing data revealed that specific cells substantially multiplied after the initial infection, then moved to the infection site and provided protection against the second infection. These so-called gamma delta T cells account for less than 1 percent of all the cells in the lymph node prior to infection. After infection, they accounted for more than 20 percent.

Working with collaborators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, the researchers tested blood from healthy individuals and people with a rare immune disorder that makes them highly susceptible to staph skin infections. Half of people with the disorder die by age 10, but if they survive to adulthood they somehow overcome their susceptibility to staph infections.

In blood samples from these patients, the researchers found an increase in the percentage of gamma delta T cells, similar to what they observed in mice, which remained stable over years. The findings and especially gamma delta T cells may be targeted for developing new therapies or a vaccine against staph skin infections.

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Aspiring improves effectiveness of cancer treatment

Adding aspirin to some existing cancer drugs could increase their effectiveness against a group of tumours resistant to treatment, scientists are hoping clinical trials could soon be underway for people with lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancers that have not responded to other therapies.

Cancers driven by mutations in a group of genes, known as RAS, had a low response to treatments with currently no drug directly targeting them. The group of tumours includes some pancreatic, lung and colorectal cancers with very low survival rates, as well as a small percentage of melanomas.
Addition of aspirin to a cancer inhibitor drug, Sorafenib, strongly enhanced its effectiveness against mouse models of lung cancer and melanoma with RAS mutations.

In a multicentre phase three trial for non-small cell lung cancer, Sorafenib alone showed a marginal improvement for patients. Latest research suggests its combination with aspirin could benefit patients with RAS mutations who don't otherwise respond to other treatments.
The drug combination could potentially reduce the dose of Sorafenib required, improving quality of life for patients by reducing adverse impacts that can lead some patients to stop treatment.

Combining it with a relatively high dose of aspirin, two molecular processes are activated and together they work to kill RAS mutant cancer cells. This dual activation also might prevent the tumours acquiring resistance to the treatment, which can happen when the inhibitor drug is given alone.
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How to rearrange immune system cells

Immune system imbalanced due to overly-active cells or cells that suppress its function can cause different diseases. Manipulating the function of  T cells, could restore the immune system's balance and create new treatments for any diseases.

Pro-inflammatory cells that boost the immune system can be rearrange into anti-inflammatory cells that suppress disease. Effector T cells activate the immune system to defend human body against different pathogens while regulatory T cells control the immune system and prevent it from attacking healthy parts of its cells.

This rearrangement can be used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and immuno-oncology therapies. The use of molecule drug that can rearrange effector T cells into regulatory T cells is very important for strengthening  immune systems. This metabolic mechanism changes one cell type into another.

In autoimmune disease, effector T cells are activated and cause damage to the body. Changing these cells into regulatory T cells could reduce the hyperactivity and return balance to the immune system. This rearrangement could improve therapies using stem cells, promotes immune tolerance and prevents the body from rejecting newly-transplanted cells.

Some cancers control regulatory T cells to suppress the immune system and allowing tumors to grow without detection. This process can activate the immune system, recognize cancer cells and attack them.
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Depression damages the heart

Depressed heart disease patients may die suddenly because post-coronary artery disease depression can leads to untimely death. This shows that their is
a link between depression, heart disease, and increased risks of death.

Coronary artery disease patients don't live as long as expected. But the life expectancy can be increased with better therapies, surgeries and treatment.

Depression is the strongest risk factor for dying, compared to any other risk factors like age, heart failure, diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney failure.

Hormonal changes and electrofunctioning changes which affect the heart's functioning during depression can cause sudden death.

Depressed people are prone to over eating, smoking and drinking. This can increase the risk of heart attack and sudden death. They have reduced levels of serotonin released in their brain which may affect their heart.

There are normal emotional reactions to having a heart attack, emotions like
anxiety, sadness and anger. These are normal for some people, but long-term anxiety and sadness can leads to depression.
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Causes and prevention of colon cancer

Colon cancer occurs in the large intestine or in the rectum, it develops slowly. An abnormal growth known as a polyp develops on the inner lining of the large intestine or rectum before the cancer growth.

Familial adenomatous polyposis, a devastating inherited disease that causes pre-cancerous polyps to grow in the intestine at a young age, often leading to the removal of portions of the colon to prevent cancer.

 CtBP drives the actions of what are known ascancer stem cells, which are keys to cancer metastasis and resistance to chemotherapy. CtBP is not mutated in colon cancer; instead, it is overexpressed to the point where the cancer depends on it for growth.

CtBP works to reprogram cells by repressing the expression of genes that typically prevent cancer through a form of cell suicide known as apoptosis while simultaneously promoting the expression of other genes that lead to cancer growth and metastasis.

The researchers found that CtBP can cause normal human cells to become cancerous when inserted into the cell's DNA. In mouse models of familial adenomatous, treatment with HIPP significantly reduced intestinal polyps and increased survival while mice bred without the CtBP gene lived twice as long as those with it.

HIPP acted as a chemical to prevent polyp formation, thereby reducing the risk of colon cancer. Anti-CtBP therapies such as HIPP may be able to complement current therapies to counter drug resistance and decrease metastasis to control and cure colon cancer.
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Reasons for deadly resistance in lung cancer and melanoma

Researchers have discovered why some lung cancer and melanoma develop deadly resistance to targeted therapies.
 Intricate DNA sequencing tests was performed on single cells using genetic models of lung cancer and melanoma.

Lung cancer and melanoma are amongst the hardest to treat of all the cancers because of their capacity to change their genetics and developing resistance to targeted therapies.

 Researchers used animal models from tumours derived from patients and single-cell genomics to develop a hypothetical model of resistance, known as "fitness threshold model," that shows why and how resistance to therapy occurs in lung and melanoma cancer.

Tumours like melanoma and lung cancers can grow back shortly after therapy, but when they do they are made of genetically diverse sub-groups of malignant cell that are resistant to treatment.

The genetic diversity of the lung cancer  and melanoma tumour allow them to adapt to the treatment and resist it. The effect of a given drug with the selection of resistance-causing alterations in DNA, resulting in significant implications for the treatment of cancer patients.

The way the drugs are administered during therapy can have a critical impact on the outcome of the response to treatment; intermittent administration enables simultaneous delivery of multiple targeted therapies while maintaining lower toxicity.
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The link between blood vessels and Immune system

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered that tumor blood vessels and immune system influences each other's roles.

There are different therapies for cancer, some therapies stop tumour growth by controlling the blood vessels that protects the tumor mass, others work on the immune system and trying to destroy the tumor.

Anti blood vessel therapies and immunotherapies have been used in treatment of cancer; immunotherapy has record great success in some cancer treatment like melanoma, but some patients are not responding to these therapies.

Researchers suggest consideration of vascular structure of the tumor and the presence of immune cells and their activities. Anti-cancer therapies toward the blood vessels is influencing the anti-tumor immune response and the other way round. Combining the therapies may produce a better result.

Patients immune system and cancer Immunotherapy

Researchers discovered that higher levels of tumor-associate immune cells TAICs expressing programmed death-ligand 1 PD-L1 were linked with longer complete survival and response to drugs.

Patients with higher levels of circulating CD8 and lower level of regulatory T cells were associated with better response to the treatments based on the blood samples before Immunotherapy.

This shows that immune cells in the microenvironments close to the tumor could determine how cancer patients will respond to treatment.

According to Dr Robert Ferris, determining the nature of cells and how treatment affects them will improve the effectiveness of therapies.

Intensive medical attention can reverse type 2 diabetes

Diabetes mellitus DM is a group of diseases associated with high blood sugar, common symptoms are: increased thirst, increase hunger and frequent urination.

When pancreas failed to produce enough insulin - type 1 or when body failed to respond to insulin properly - type 2 are the common types of diabetes.

Correct combination of medications, insulin and lifestyle therapies for three to four months can reverse type 2 diabetes according to latest study on diabetes.

Bariatric surgery is not the only solution to type 2 diabetes, following standard lifestyle advice from your Doctor, will leads to achieving normal glucose level with the aid of medications.

The oral medication, insulin and lifestyle therapies will give your pancreas rest and decrease fat stores in your body; this will improve insulin production and make your pancreas active.