Marsupial immunology bounding ahead

2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Belov ◽  
Robert D. Miller ◽  
Julie M. Old ◽  
Lauren J. Young

Marsupial immune responses were previously touted as ‘primitive’ but we now know that the marsupial immune system is complex and on par with that of eutherian mammals. In this manuscript we review the field of marsupial immunology, focusing on basic anatomy, developmental immunology, immunogenetics and evolution. We concentrate on advances to our understanding of marsupial immune gene architecture, made possible by the recent sequencing of the opossum, tammar wallaby and Tasmanian devil genomes. Characterisation of immune gene sequences now paves the way for the development of immunological assays that will allow us to more accurately study health and disease in marsupials.

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 1211-1259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Middleton ◽  
Andrew S. Weyrich ◽  
Guy A. Zimmerman

Platelets are essential for physiological hemostasis and are central in pathological thrombosis. These are their traditional and best known activities in health and disease. In addition, however, platelets have specializations that broaden their functional repertoire considerably. These functional capabilities, some of which are recently discovered, include the ability to sense and respond to infectious and immune signals and to act as inflammatory effector cells. Human platelets and platelets from mice and other experimental animals can link the innate and adaptive limbs of the immune system and act across the immune continuum, often also linking immune and hemostatic functions. Traditional and newly recognized facets of the biology of platelets are relevant to defensive, physiological immune responses of the lungs and to inflammatory lung diseases. The emerging view of platelets as blood cells that are much more diverse and versatile than previously thought further predicts that additional features of the biology of platelets and of megakaryocytes, the precursors of platelets, will be discovered and that some of these will also influence pulmonary immune defenses and inflammatory injury.


Author(s):  
Haozhe Wang ◽  
Jaime P. P. Foong ◽  
Nicola L. Harris ◽  
Joel C. Bornstein

AbstractThe enteric nervous system (ENS) of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract interacts with the local immune system bidirectionally. Recent publications have demonstrated that such interactions can maintain normal GI functions during homeostasis and contribute to pathological symptoms during infection and inflammation. Infection can also induce long-term changes of the ENS resulting in the development of post-infectious GI disturbances. In this review, we discuss how the ENS can regulate and be regulated by immune responses and how such interactions control whole tissue physiology. We also address the requirements for the proper regeneration of the ENS and restoration of GI function following the resolution of infection.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1392
Author(s):  
Peter Lawrence Smith ◽  
Katarzyna Piadel ◽  
Angus George Dalgleish

Cancer vaccination and immunotherapy revolutionised the treatment of cancer, a result of decades of research into the immune system in health and disease. However, despite recent breakthroughs in treating otherwise terminal cancer, only a minority of patients respond to cancer immunotherapy and some cancers are largely refractive to immunotherapy treatment. This is due to numerous issues intrinsic to the tumour, its microenvironment, or the immune system. CD4+ and CD8+ αβ T-cells emerged as the primary effector cells of the anti-tumour immune response but their function in cancer patients is often compromised. This review details the mechanisms by which T-cell responses are hindered in the setting of cancer and refractive to immunotherapy, and details many of the approaches under investigation to direct T-cell function and improve the efficacy of cancer vaccination and immunotherapy.


Author(s):  
Göran K. Hansson

This chapter provides an overview of the vascular wall and its cells from an immunological point of view, discusses the capacity of vascular cells to promote and regulate immune responses, and outlines interactions between the vasculature and the immune system in health and disease. The role of immune mechanisms in vascular diseases is discussed, with a focus on atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory vascular disease.


Genes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milena Damulewicz ◽  
Michał Świątek ◽  
Agnieszka Łoboda ◽  
Józef Dulak ◽  
Bernadetta Bilska ◽  
...  

The daily expression of genes and the changes in gene expression after silencing the heme oxygenase (ho) gene were examined in the retina of Drosophila using microarray and SybrGreen qPCR (quantitative polymerase chain reaction) methods. The HO decrease in the morning upregulated 83 genes and downregulated 57 genes. At night, 80 genes were upregulated and 22 were downregulated. The top 20 genes downregulated after ho silencing in the morning modulate phototransduction, immune responses, autophagy, phagocytosis, apoptosis, the carbon monoxide (CO) response, the oxidative stress/UV response, and translation. In turn, the genes that upregulated at night were involved in translation—the response to oxidative stress, DNA damage, and phototransduction. Among the top 20 genes downregulated at night were genes involved in phototransduction, immune responses, and autophagy. For some genes, a low level of HO had an opposite effect in the morning compared to those at night. Silencing ho also changed the expression of circadian clock genes, while the HO decrease during the night enhanced the expression of immune system genes. The results showed that the cyclic expression of HO is important for controlling several processes in the retina, including neuroprotection and those involved in the innate immune system.


Author(s):  
Tarun Kumar ◽  
Anu Sharma ◽  
Siddhartha Dutta ◽  
Sachin J ◽  
Gitashree Dutta ◽  
...  

Immunity is defined as resistance offered by the host against microbes and other foreign substances that prevent them from illness caused by these offending agents. The immune system is responsible for the identification and elimination of pathogens that invade the body before sickness and prevent the damage caused by them. Immunity to a particular disease is obtained by the presence of specific antibodies against that disease. Antibodies are proteins that the body produces to neutralize or kill pathogens or species carrying diseases. Antibodies are unique to diseases. A healthy immune system is highly essential and to strengthen the immunity, several dietary and lifestyle changes can reinforce the natural defences of the body and help fight injurious pathogens or organisms that cause sickness. Being a vast topic, full details of all mechanisms of the immune responses and immune therapies are beyond the scope of this article. This article aimed to provide the basic information and mechanisms involved in functioning of the immune system and its importance in health and disease. This review article highlights on basics of immunity and substances that can act as natural immunity boosters.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tian-Yu Lei ◽  
Ying-Ze Ye ◽  
Xi-Qun Zhu ◽  
Daniel Smerin ◽  
Li-Juan Gu ◽  
...  

AbstractThrough considerable effort in research and clinical studies, the immune system has been identified as a participant in the onset and progression of brain injury after ischaemic stroke. Due to the involvement of all types of immune cells, the roles of the immune system in stroke pathology and associated effects are complicated. Past research concentrated on the functions of monocytes and neutrophils in the pathogenesis of ischaemic stroke and tried to demonstrate the mechanisms of tissue injury and protection involving these immune cells. Within the past several years, an increasing number of studies have elucidated the vital functions of T cells in the innate and adaptive immune responses in both the acute and chronic phases of ischaemic stroke. Recently, the phenotypes of T cells with proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory function have been demonstrated in detail. T cells with distinctive phenotypes can also influence cerebral inflammation through various pathways, such as regulating the immune response, interacting with brain-resident immune cells and modulating neurogenesis and angiogenesis during different phases following stroke. In view of the limited treatment options available following stroke other than tissue plasminogen activator therapy, understanding the function of immune responses, especially T cell responses, in the post-stroke recovery period can provide a new therapeutic direction. Here, we discuss the different functions and temporal evolution of T cells with different phenotypes during the acute and chronic phases of ischaemic stroke. We suggest that modulating the balance between the proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory functions of T cells with distinct phenotypes may become a potential therapeutic approach that reduces the mortality and improves the functional outcomes and prognosis of patients suffering from ischaemic stroke.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (01) ◽  
pp. 003-016
Author(s):  
John Michel Warner

AbstractAccording to Hahnemann, homoeopathic medicines must be great immune responses inducers. In crude states, these medicines pose severe threats to the immune system. So, the immune-system of an organism backfires against the molecules of the medicinal substances. The complex immune response mechanism activated by the medicinal molecules can handle any threats which are similar to the threats posed by the medicinal molecules. The intersectional operation of the two sets, medicine-induced immune responses and immune responses necessary to cure diseases, shows that any effective homoeopathic medicine, which is effective against any disease, can induce immune responses which are necessary to cure the specific disease. In this article, this mechanism has been exemplified by the action of Silicea in human body. Also, a neuroimmunological assessment of the route of medicine administration shows that the oral cavity and the nasal cavity are two administration-routes where the smallest doses (sometimes even few molecules) of a particular homoeopathic medicine induce the most effective and sufficient (in amount) purgatory immune responses. Administering the smallest unitary doses of Silicea in the oral route can make significant changes in the vital force line on the dose–response relationship graph. The dose–response relationship graph further implicates that the most effective dose of a medicine must be below the lethality threshold. If multiple doses of any medicine are administered at same intervals, the immune-system primarily engages with the medicinal molecules; but along the passage of time, the engagement line splits into two: one engages with the medicinal molecules and another engages with diseases. The immune system's engagement with the diseases increases along the passage of time, though the engagement with the medicinal molecules gradually falls with the administration of descending doses. Necessarily, I have shown through mathematical logic that the descending doses, though they seem to be funny, can effectively induce the most effective immune responses.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 850
Author(s):  
María Ángeles Martín ◽  
Sonia Ramos

Flavanols are natural occurring polyphenols abundant in fruits and vegetables to which have been attributed to beneficial effects on health, and also against metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome. These positive properties have been associated to the modulation of different molecular pathways, and importantly, to the regulation of immunological reactions (pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, adhesion molecules, nuclear factor-κB [NF-κB], inducible enzymes), and the activity of cells of the immune system. In addition, flavanols can modulate the composition and function of gut microbiome in a prebiotic-like manner, resulting in the positive regulation of metabolic pathways and immune responses, and reduction of low-grade chronic inflammation. Moreover, the biotransformation of flavanols by gut bacteria increases their bioavailability generating a number of metabolites with potential to affect human metabolism, including during metabolic diseases. However, the exact mechanisms by which flavanols act on the microbiota and immune system to influence health and disease remain unclear, especially in humans where these connections have been scarcely explored. This review seeks to summarize recent advances on the complex interaction of flavanols with gut microbiota, immunity and inflammation focus on metabolic diseases.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 699
Author(s):  
Cielo García-Montero ◽  
Oscar Fraile-Martínez ◽  
Ana M. Gómez-Lahoz ◽  
Leonel Pekarek ◽  
Alejandro J. Castellanos ◽  
...  

The most prevalent diseases of our time, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) (including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and some types of cancer) are rising worldwide. All of them share the condition of an “inflammatory disorder”, with impaired immune functions frequently caused or accompanied by alterations in gut microbiota. These multifactorial maladies also have in common malnutrition related to physiopathology. In this context, diet is the greatest modulator of immune system–microbiota crosstalk, and much interest, and new challenges, are arising in the area of precision nutrition as a way towards treatment and prevention. It is a fact that the westernized diet (WD) is partly responsible for the increased prevalence of NCDs, negatively affecting both gut microbiota and the immune system. Conversely, other nutritional approaches, such as Mediterranean diet (MD), positively influence immune system and gut microbiota, and is proposed not only as a potential tool in the clinical management of different disease conditions, but also for prevention and health promotion globally. Thus, the purpose of this review is to determine the regulatory role of nutritional components of WD and MD in the gut microbiota and immune system interplay, in order to understand, and create awareness of, the influence of diet over both key components.


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