Prepared for war: How cells survive viral invasion

"Let him who desires peace, prepare for war," wrote the Roman author Vegetius in the 4th century CE. Our bodies, it seems, live by this dictum: Even in times of peace, some cells express high levels of defensive, antiviral ...

A molecular 'Trojan Horse'

The research group of Nuno Maulide from the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Vienna has, in cooperation with the Research Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, achieved the synthesis ...

Stem Cell Research Made Safer with Latest Discovery

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new development in stem cell research has resulted from a completed study by a collaboration of scientists using the drug Rapamycin to inhibit mTOR, an intracellular protein necessary in cell proliferation. ...

Discovery may lead to development of safer immunosuppressants

Immunosuppressive treatment is necessary to prevent rejection of an organ after transplant and has great potential for treating chronic inflammatory diseases. However, currently available immunosuppressant drugs can pose ...

Immunosuppression

Immunosuppression involves an act that reduces the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immuno-suppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reaction to treatment of other conditions.

Deliberately induced immunosuppression is generally done to prevent the body from rejecting an organ transplant, treating graft-versus-host disease after a bone marrow transplant, or for the treatment of auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn's disease. This is typically done using drugs, but may involve surgery (splenectomy), plasmapharesis, or radiation.

A person who is undergoing immunosuppression, or whose immune system is weak for other reasons (for example, chemotherapy, HIV, and Lupus) is said to be immunocompromised.

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