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Even without antibodies, B cells can thwart viruses

Even without antibodies, B cells can thwart viruses

Evidence is emerging that B cells, once thought to fight infection solely by producing antibodies, might also prevent disease without them. In the traditional view, antibodies specific to a bacterium or virus are produced by B cells and maintained against future infection by certain classes of T cells as part of the slow-but-smart ‘adaptive’ immune response. However, it seems that B cells also play an important role in the short-term immediate immune response to pathogens.  Read more

Chip promises better diagnosis for common blood disorder

Chip promises better diagnosis for common blood disorder

For more than fifty years, blood smear tests for sickle cell disease have been the standard diagnostic tool for physicians. But the tests, which show whether the patient’s red blood cells have an abnormal form of the iron-carrying protein hemoglobin that will cause them to take on a crescent shape in response to low oxygen levels in the blood, fails to predict the severity of symptoms. It is a large diagnostic loophole, considering the symptoms of sickle cell disease, which affects more than 13 million people worldwide, can range from tiredness to life-threatening blood vessel clogs. A new microfluidic chip promises to change that by providing a way to measure the risk of dangerous vascular clogging before it happens.  Read more

From the queen of butter to the queen of diabetes

From the queen of butter to the queen of diabetes

Deep-fried butter balls. Egg-bacon-burgers on donuts. Fried cheesecake. These are not recommended foods for someone suffering from a chronic metabolic disorder, but this week Paula Deen, the Food Network cooking show host behind such heart disease-inducing recipes, made public that she has type 2 diabetes, a disease she was diagnosed with three years ago. Deen also announced that she is leading a campaign called ‘Diabetes in a New Light’, which is being launched by Denmark’s Novo Nordisk to promote the company’s $500 million-a-year diabetes drug Victoza (liraglutide) in the US.  Read more

Causes are hard. Explaining pharma’s problems is harder

Causes are hard. Explaining pharma’s problems is harder

We all know the pharmaceutical industry is in trouble — what, with the precipitous patent cliff, soaring price of drug development and the death of the megablockbuster. And much ink has been spilled about the potential solutions to pharma’s problems, from mergers to academic partnerships to new research units. But what if the entire R&D enterprise is fundamentally flawed?  Read more

First mutation-specific treatment for cystic fibrosis filed for approval

‘Kalydeco’ may sound like a type of Californian interior design style, but it’s actually the name of a new cystic fibrosis drug that Vertex Pharmaceutical announced today it has submitted for market approval in the US.  Read more

Natural killer cells caught on film while attacking disease

One of the most potent players within the immune system is the so-called ‘natural killer cell’. The ‘NK’ cell attacks by emptying sacks full of destructive proteins, known as lytic granules, across its membrane into a diseased cell, causing the target to dissolve. And, in research published today in PLoS Biology, molecular immunologists from Imperial College London caught it all on film using specialized microscopy technology.  Read more