Research in mice shows that the gut microbiota of pregnant mice influences the development of stem cells in their offspring. Changes in the bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila in the maternal microbiota alter the proliferation of intestinal and neural cells in the offspring, according to the study published in Cell Stem Cell.
Antimicrobial resistance caused around 5 million deaths worldwide in 2019. The use of vaccines has the potential to reduce these deaths - 515,000 fewer deaths per year - according to a report published by the WHO. The work focused on 24 pathogens and 44 vaccines, licensed by regulatory agencies, in clinical development or in development. By counting existing vaccines alone, antibiotic use could be reduced by 142 million daily doses per year.
Global childhood immunisation coverage stagnated in 2023, with 2.7 million more children unvaccinated or under-vaccinated than at pre-pandemic levels in 2019. This is one of the data published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF in the World Health Organization's Worldwide Estimates of National Immunisation Coverage (WUENIC), which captures global vaccination trends against 14 diseases. More than half of unvaccinated children live in 31 countries with fragile and conflict-affected environments.
An antibody therapy is able to restore the immune system of elderly mice to a more youthful state. The method, published in the journal Nature, rebalances blood cell production and reduces age-related immune decline. Preclinical and clinical studies are needed to determine whether this approach could be feasible in humans.
A study has analysed more than 100 environmental factors and their impact on the immune response. After studying about a thousand volunteers, its conclusions are that smoking is the factor that causes the most alterations in defences. While some changes are transient, others may remain for years after quitting. The results are published in the journal Nature.
A fatty acid present in the meat and dairy products of grazing animals, such as cows and sheep – trans-vaccenic acid (TVA) – enhances the ability of CD8+ T cells to infiltrate tumors and eliminate cancer cells, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Chicago (USA), published today in the journal Nature.
We often see the term 'vaccine' used in the media to refer to drugs that target diseases that are not even infectious, such as cancer and cholesterol. In this article we explain when it is correct to talk about vaccines and when it would be wrong.
Currently, when an organ transplant is performed, the patient has to take immunosuppressive drugs to prevent his or her system from rejecting the new organ. These drugs must be taken for life and have numerous side effects. In a phase 1 clinical trial, researchers gave patients receiving a liver transplant regulatory dendritic cells derived from the original donor, with the hypothesis that these cells could 'teach' the recipient's immune system to tolerate the new organ. The research, published in Science Translational Medicine, suggests that this treatment could reduce or even eliminate the need for long-term use of immunosuppressants.
Bubble boy syndrome is a very serious condition caused by combined immunodeficiency. It is sometimes caused by certain mutations in the gene that codes for the Artemis protein. A phase I-II clinical trial has tested a gene therapy that adds a correct copy of the gene. The results are published in the journal NEJM.
A study published in the journal Nature Medicine has tested a therapy based on CAR-T cells - T lymphocytes modified in the laboratory - to treat five patients with systemic lupus erythematosus who did not respond to conventional treatments. According to the study, the symptoms subsided in all of them and the improvement was maintained throughout the duration of the study.