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AUGUST 1, 2016 Research Extras |
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New immunotherapy drugs can help signal the immune system to attack. Here an individual T cell (blue) destroys a cancer cell. | |
CANCER
New Drugs Work with the Immune System to Fight Cancer
A decade ago, there were few effective treatment options for patients with advanced melanoma or lung cancer. That's changing, thanks to new immunotherapy drugs that can unleash a patient's own immune system. Emory scientists' groundbreaking discoveries pointed the way to the new therapies, and Winship clinical investigators have been involved in clinical trials of almost every immunotherapy drug approved by the FDA. While patients benefit from an increasingly wider range of treatment options, Winship clinical and laboratory investigators take on the challenge of making these therapies even more effective. Read more...
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| Research in mice shows the growth factor IGF-4 (red) in the heart muscle in response to heart attack, but chymase seems to limit its benefits. |
After Heart Attack, Chymase Inhibitors Could Extend Cell Survival
Cardiologists agree that the window of opportunity to intervene after a heart attack and prevent the death of heart muscle cells closes within hours, but it may be possible to extend the period for the heart's self-healing. Thwarting an enzyme called chymase, which inhibits heart healing, could allow growth factors in the injured heart to last longer, with better results. Read more...
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| Scientists are focused on factors that allow Zika to enter Hofbauer cells and how those factors change during different phases of pregnancy. |
Learning How Zika Enters the Placenta Could Help with Vaccines, Drugs
The placenta protects most viruses from entering the fetus. Zika virus, however, can infect and reproduce in placental immune cells called Hofbauer cells, without killing them. The discovery may explain how the virus can pass through the placenta of a pregnant woman, on its way to infecting developing brain cells in the fetus. Read more...
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| The natural sugar trehalose could help fight neurogenerative disease. |
NEUROSCIENCE
How a Natural Sugar Could Help Preserve Brain Cells
A natural sugar called trehalose could boost production of the growth factor progranulin (PGRN), which is known to help keep neurons healthy. In a "disease-in-a-dish" approach, researchers exposed neuronal cells with PGRN mutations to trehalose and restored PGRN production. The same thing happened when trehalose was given orally to mice. Read more...
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Editor, Holly Korschun, Executive Director of Research Communications
Managing Editor, David S. Stephens, MD, Vice President for Research