International Lancet commission with MHH pneumologist Professor Dr Tobias Welte makes recommendations on prophylaxis, diagnosis and therapy. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the most common chronic respiratory disease worldwide and the third leading cause of death. In Germany, about ten percent of the population is affected. Fatigue, coughing and persistent massive shortness of breath are among the predominant symptoms. When these occur, COPD is usually already clearly progressed. There is no cure. However, the disease is preventable. The main…
Neutrophils, the most abundant type of white blood cell, are the body’s first line of defense against infection. Foreign pathogens can stress the body and activate neutrophils. When activated, neutrophils employ various weapons to protect the body. But if overactivated, these weapons can damage the body’s own tissues. Lung tissue is saturated with blood vessels, making them very susceptible to neutrophil attacks. If severe enough, acute lung injuries can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the leading cause of…
The results of the international study involving the Cluster of Excellence PMI also point to a previously unknown process in the development of this chronic inflammatory bowel disease. The special features of the study are its size as well as its methodological approach. In order to detect changes in the genome of patients with Crohn’s disease, an international consortium compared DNA samples from around 30,000 people with Crohn’s disease and a control group of 80,000 people without this disease. The…
COVID-19 has been mutating and spreading ever since the pandemic plagued the world. Contrary to what people believe, this disease is far from resolved. SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, which causes a respiratory disease, was identified first in 2019. It spreads through droplets when people speak, sneeze, or cough. Recently, a surge in COVID-19 cases has been reported across Asian countries. Considering its fatal effects on humans, primarily death makes it a deadly disease requiring a permanent and potent…
MHH professor receives “ERC Proof of Concept Grant” to revolutionise drug safety / Novel immune cells to benefit millions of people. Medicines that are injected must be continuously tested for impurities as part of their production and release, as these can cause fever or even blood poisoning. Until now, this has mostly been done using animal tests, animal products or the so-called monocyte activation test (MAT). But the use of animal tests and products must be avoided – also because…
Lactate, a metabolic byproduct produced during exercise, could augment current immunotherapies. A new study by UT Southwestern’s Simmons Cancer Center scientists suggests that lactate, a metabolic byproduct produced by cells during strenuous exercise, can rejuvenate immune cells that fight cancer. The finding, published in Nature Communications, could eventually be used to develop new strategies to augment the anti-tumor effect of cancer immunotherapies, the study authors said. “The lactate that we usually think of as a waste product appears to have a previously…
Vaccinated people who were infected by the first Omicron subvariants have four times greater protection than vaccinated people who were not infected. These results are part of a study that will be published today in the prestigious scientific journal New England Journal of Medicine*. The study published now was led by Luís Graça, group leader at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM) and Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, and by Manuel Carmo…
Researchers at the University of Bonn are evaluating a new imaging technique for the diagnosis of posterior uveitis. An estimated five to ten percent of blindness worldwide is caused by the rare inflammatory eye disease uveitis. Posterior uveitis in particular is often associated with severe disease progression and the need for immunosuppressive therapy. In posterior uveitis, inflammation occurs in the retina and in the underlying choroid that supplies it with nutrients. Researchers at the Ophthalmology Department at the University of…
– new participating cells and supportive drug identified. Regeneration in the CNS is a rare event and strongly limited to the replacement of so-called oligodendroglial cells and their electrically insulating elements of the axons, called myelin sheaths. This is also true for multiple sclerosis (MS). The team of Prof. Patrick Küry, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, describes in Lancet EBioMedicine that the corticosteroid Medrysone is highly effective in promoting the replacement of lost oligodendroglial cells and also the restoration…
Many tumor cells mist themselves with a protective perfume that disables the immune system. But a drug already approved for other purposes can apparently render this weapon harmless. This is shown in a study by the University of Bonn and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, which has now appeared in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. The researchers now want to further optimize the compound. In the medium term, this could pave the way for new anti-cancer drugs. Many cancer…
Lessons learned from the public health responses to the HIV and COVID-19 pandemics should help guide the response to the current outbreak of monkeypox, National Institutes of Health experts write in an editorial published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and H. Clifford Lane, M.D., NIAID deputy director for clinical research and special projects, discuss a published case series (JP Thornhill et al.)…
Could aid efforts to find treatments for Alzheimer’s, other diseases. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a new druggable pathway that potentially could be used to help prevent Alzheimer’s dementia. Amyloid beta accumulation in the brain is the first step in the development of Alzheimer’s dementia. Scientists have poured countless hours and millions of dollars into finding ways to clear amyloid away before cognitive symptoms arise, with largely disappointing results. In this study, published…
Our own immune system can become the enemy when mechanisms that are actually protective get out of control. In ANCA-associated vasculitis, excessive inflammatory reactions lead to pulmonary hemorrhages that can be fatal if left untreated. Researchers at the University of Bonn, together with colleagues from Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and England, have deciphered a mechanism in mice and patients that leads to the severe disease. The results are now published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. In ANCA-associated vasculitis, there…
X-ray screening identifies compounds blocking a major corona enzyme. Three natural compounds present in foods like green tea, olive oil and red wine are promising candidates for the development of drugs against the coronavirus. In a comprehensive screening of a large library of natural substances at DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III the compounds bound to a central enzyme vital for the replication of the coronavirus. All three compounds are already used as active substances in existing drugs, as the team…
Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have discovered that increasing the production of new neurons in mice with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) rescues the animals’ memory defects. The study, to be published August 19 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), shows that new neurons can incorporate into the neural circuits that store memories and restore their normal function, suggesting that boosting neuron production could be a viable strategy to treat AD patients. New neurons are produced from neural stem…
Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine used high-resolution MRI data to create a valuable new resource for the study of human brain development at key moments in utero and after birth. Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have mapped the surface of the cortex of the young human brain with unprecedented resolution, revealing the development of key functional regions from two months before birth to two years after. The new cortical development mapping, reported online in the Proceedings…
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