Iron carries oxygen throughout the body, but ironically, it can also make it harder to breathe for people with asthma.
Hiroshi Watanabe/Stone via Getty Images
Asthma attacks can result from immune cells overreacting to a harmless allergen. Tamping down iron levels in certain immune cells can help control their activity.
Chemotherapy is used to treat all lung cancer patients. Yet many would not need such invasive treatment if diagnosis of the risk of recurrence were more refined. A new technology could change all that.
(Shutterstock)
Dietary supplements claim to be able to ‘boost your immune system’ to combat disease. But attaining immune balance through a healthy lifestyle and vaccination is a safer bet to keep in good health.
This microscopy image shows a cytotoxic T cell (blue) attacking a cancer cell (green) by releasing toxic chemicals (red).
Alex Ritter and Jennifer Lippincott Schwartz and Gillian Griffiths/National Institutes of Health via Flickr
T cells recognize and kill cancer cells but quickly lose their effectiveness. This fast dysfunction may help explain why immunotherapy doesn’t lead to long-term remission for many patients.
Microglia perform many functions in the brain, and their role in seizures is unclear.
KTSDesign/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
Seizures are like sudden electrical storms in the brain that can cause lasting damage. A set of immune cells in the brain called microglia may provide protection.
Microglia (colored green) play several essential roles in maintaining brain health and function.
Gerry Shaw/Wikimedia Commons
Microglia, immune cells disguised as brain cells, are known as the janitors of the brain. Dialing up their usual duties just enough could provide an avenue to treat neurodegenerative disease.
Insect bites or stings, like the one on this person’s hand, are a manifestation of inflammation.
Suthep Wongkhad/EyeEm via Getty Images
Inflammation is a complicated and important part of how the immune system responds to threats to the body. But when the inflammatory response goes awry, it can lead to serious problems.
While a strong immune response is essential to fight against viral infection, an immune system that continues to stay active long after the virus has been cleared can lead to lung damage.
Sepsis begins with infection by bacteria or a virus. This panoramic ilustration inside a blood vessel shows rod-shaped bacteria, red blood cells and immune cells called leukocytes.
Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
Sepsis onset can be difficult to recognize, in part because its symptoms can mimic those of many other conditions. A treatment delay of even a few hours can make the difference between life and death.
Nucleic acid vaccines use mRNA to give cells instructions on how to produce a desired protein.
Libre de Droit/iStock via Getty Images
DNA and mRNA vaccines produce a different kind of immune response than traditional vaccines, allowing researchers to tackle some previously unsolvable problems in medicine.
There’s not enough evidence yet to support the AstraZeneca CEO’s statement. But it is theoretically plausible.
During pregnancy, the body’s specialized immune cells must learn to recognize the fetus as part of the self so that they don’t attack it.
Raja Segar via Wikimedia Commons
How the immune system learns not to attack a developing fetus and placenta is important to understanding pregnancy and its common complications, like miscarriage.
The survival of the human body is a fine balancing act between cell growth and cell death. Understanding our cells’ complex “licence to die” could give us new ways to combat disease.
Our study revealed breastfed babies had twice the number of regulatory T cells.
SeventyFour/ Shutterstock
Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University found that variations in genes that code for parts of the cellular alarm system might play a role in how well people fight off COVID-19.