Major Step Toward an Alzheimer’s Vaccine
Researchers discovered a way to stimulate the brain’s natural defense mechanisms in mice with Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. This major breakthrough opens the door to the development of a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and a vaccine to prevent the illness.
Natural Process Activating Brain’s Immune Cells Could Point Way to Repairing Damaged Brain
The brain’s key “breeder” cells secrete substances that boost the numbers and strength of critical brain-based immune cells believed to play a vital role in brain health. This finding adds a new dimension to our understanding of how resident stem cells and stem cell transplants may improve brain function.
Attack! Silent Watchmen Charge to Defend the Nervous System
Research provides the first evidence that mechanisms regulated by the Runx1 gene control the balance between the surveillant versus activated microglia states.
Study Suggests Immune System Can Boost Regeneration of Peripheral Nerves
Research seeks the ‘master knob’ to turn on nerve repair. Modulating immune response to injury could accelerate the regeneration of severed peripheral nerves, a new study in an animal model has found. By altering activity of the macrophage cells that respond to injuries, researchers dramatically increased the rate at which nerve processes regrew.
Low Vitamin D Levels Linked to More Severe Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms
Low blood levels of vitamin D are associated with an increased number of brain lesions and signs of a more active disease state in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study finds, suggesting a potential link between intake of the vitamin and the risk of longer-term disability from the autoimmune disorder.
Researchers Halt Autoimmune Disease Myasthenia Gravis in Mice
Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have developed a gene-based therapy to stop the rodent equivalent of the autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis by specifically targeting the destructive immune response the disorder triggers in the body.
Researchers Find Evidence of Link between Immune Irregularities and Autism
A new Caltech study suggests that specific changes in an overactive immune system can indeed contribute to autism-like behaviors in mice, and that in some cases, this activation can be related to what a developing fetus experiences in the womb.
Gene Link to Multiple Sclerosis Explains Drug Side Effects
The biological role of a gene variant implicated in multiple sclerosis (MS) has been determined by researchers at Oxford University. The researchers investigated one particular genetic variant – found in a gene called TNFRSF1A – which has previously been associated with the risk of developing MS.
Women Infected with Toxoplasma Gondii Parasite Have Increased Risk of Attempting Suicide
Women infected with the Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) parasite, which is spread through contact with cat feces or eating undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables, are at increased risk of attempting suicide, according to a new study of more than 45,000 women in Denmark.
