1st December, 2017 Boily-Larouche et al., observed that HIV uninfected women had higher frequencies of CD161+CD4+ T cells in the cervix compared to blood...
November 2017
Regulatory T cells help prevent CMV reactivation
29th November, 2017Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection usually results in lifelong, chronic infection. The virus remains in a latent state that eventually gets reactivated. Activation...
Asymptomatic Zika virus infection protects from re-infection
27th November, 2017Pregnant women are particularly susceptible to symptomatic Zika virus (ZIKV) infection and the virus has the ability to affect the developing fetus, resulting in a host...
PD-1-based immunotherapy affected by gut microbiome
24th November, 2017Gut microbiome dysfunction has been linked to several conditions. Researchers have now shown link between resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) which target...
Link between schistosomiasis and HIV susceptibility
20th November, 2017Previous studies have suggested that women who are chronically infected with schistosomiasis have increased HIV infection rates. However, prior to this current study...
IL-10+ Th1 T cells associated with reduced malaria parasitemia
17th November, 2017Boyle et al. showed that CD4+ IL-10 producing Pf-specific T cells are of Th1 origin and are associated with reduced parasitemia in children from a high malaria endemic country.This suggests a role of IL-10+ ...
Is HIV becoming more resistant over time?
15th November, 2017Since the discovery of HIV in the 1980s, the virus has spread worldwide, causing the AIDS pandemic. Neutralising antibodies can bind to the virus and prevent it from entering into cells, however, there has been debate about whether HIV strains are...
Pre-diabetes associated M.tb-specific T cell dysfunction
13th November, 2017Kumar et al. showed that individuals with PDM-LTBI had significantly decreased CD4+ Th1 T cell functionality compared to LTBI only individuals. This dysfunction was...
Insight into immune activation caused by Ebola virus
10th November, 2017One of the hallmarks of Ebola virus (EBOV) infection is a heightened immune response characterized by a "cytokine storm". Researchers investigated the cause...
Highlights from the Infectious Disease (ID) Week 2017 Conference
8th November, 2017Infectious Disease (ID) Week, an annual conference which started in October 2012, has just completed its sixth meeting in San Diego, earlier in October 2017. Establishing itself as a...