Search results for "Immunologic"
showing 10 items of 1115 documents
Predictive diagnostics and personalized medicine for the prevention of chronic degenerative diseases
2010
Abstract Progressive increase of mean age and life expectancy in both industrialized and emerging societies parallels an increment of chronic degenerative diseases (CDD) such as cancer, cardiovascular, autoimmune or neurodegenerative diseases among the elderly. CDD are of complex diagnosis, difficult to treat and absorbing an increasing proportion in the health care budgets worldwide. However, recent development in modern medicine especially in genetics, proteomics, and informatics is leading to the discovery of biomarkers associated with different CDD that can be used as indicator of disease’s risk in healthy subjects. Therefore, predictive medicine is merging and medical doctors may for t…
“Positive biology”: the centenarian lesson
2012
Abstract The extraordinary increase of the elderly in developed countries underscore the importance of studies on ageing and longevity and the need for the prompt spread of knowledge about ageing in order to satisfactorily decrease the medical, economic and social problems associated to advancing years, because of the increased number of individuals not autonomous and affected by invalidating pathologies. Centenarians are equipped to reach the extreme limits of human life span and, most importantly, to show relatively good health, being able to perform their routine daily life and to escape fatal age-related diseases. Thus, they are the best example of extreme longevity, representing select…
Understanding ageing: Biomedical and bioengineering approaches, the immunologic view
2008
Abstract During the past century, humans have gained more years of average life expectancy than in the last 10,000 years; we are now living in a rapidly ageing world. The sharp rise in life expectancy, coupled to a steady decline in birth rates in all developed countries, has led to an unprecedented demographic revolution characterized by an explosive growth in the number and proportion of older people. Ageing is a complex process that negatively impacts the development of the immune system and its ability to function. Progressive changes in the T and B cell systems over the life span have a major impact on the capacity to respond to immune challenge. These cumulative age-associated changes…
GDF15: an emerging modulator of immunity and a strategy in COVID-19 in association with iron metabolism
2021
International audience; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a pandemic of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 encodes the structural proteins spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M), and nucleocapsid (N). The receptor-binding domain on the surface subunit S1 is responsible for attachment of the virus to angiotensin (Ang)-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which is highly expressed in host cells. The cytokine storm observed in patients with COVID-19 contributes to the endothelial vascular dysfunction, which can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiorgan failure, alteration in iron homeostasi…
Co-factors, Microbes, and Immunogenetics in Celiac Disease to Guide Novel Approaches for Diagnosis and Treatment.
2021
Celiac disease (CeD) is a frequent immune-mediated disease that affects not only the small intestine but also many extraintestinal sites. The role of gluten proteins as dietary triggers, HLA-DQ2 or -DQ8 as major necessary genetic predisposition, and tissue transglutaminase (TG2) as mechanistically involved autoantigen, are unique features of CeD. Recent research implicates many cofactors working in synergism with these key triggers, including the intestinal microbiota and their metabolites, nongluten dietary triggers, intestinal barrier defects, novel immune cell phenotypes, and mediators and cytokines. In addition, apart from HLA-DQ2 and -DQ8, multiple and complex predisposing genetic fact…
Contact-dependent inhibition of growth of normal diploid human fibroblasts by plasma membrane glycoproteins.
1988
Homeostasis in vivo is maintained by a highly complex network of positive and negative signals. At the cellular level, this regulatory microenvironment can be divided, in a simplified fashion, into two major compartments: the humoral compartment, including compounds such as hormones, growth factors and nutrients, and the contact-environment compartment, including cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. At least in cultures of diploid, non-transformed cells, cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions have been shown to be of major importance for the regulation of growth as well as of differentiation. Although until now the glycoprotein involved in the contact-dependent inhibition of growth has n…
Squaric Acid Mediated Synthesis and Biological Activity of a Library of Linear and Hyperbranched Poly(Glycerol)-Protein Conjugates
2012
Polymer-protein conjugates generated from side chain functional synthetic polymers are attractive because they can be easily further modified with, for example, labeling groups or targeting ligands. The residue specific modification of proteins with side chain functional synthetic polymers using the traditional coupling strategies may be compromised due to the nonorthogonality of the side-chain and chain-end functional groups of the synthetic polymer, which may lead to side reactions. This study explores the feasibility of the squaric acid diethyl ester mediated coupling as an amine selective, hydroxyl tolerant, and hydrolysis insensitive route for the preparation of side-chain functional, …
Differences between the Glycosylation Patterns of Haptoglobin Isolated from Skin Scales and Plasma of Psoriatic Patients
2012
Improved diagnosis of psoriasis, by new biomarkers, is required for evaluating the progression rate of the disease and the response to treatment. Haptoglobin (Hpt), a glycoprotein secreted by hepatocytes and other types of cells including keratinocytes, was found with glycan changes in psoriasis and other diseases. We previously reported that Hpt isolated from plasma of psoriatic patients is more fucosylated than Hpt of healthy subjects. The aim of this study was to compare the glycosylation pattern of Hpt isolated from skin scales or plasma of patients with psoriasis with that of Hpt from cornified epidermal layer or plasma of healthy subjects. High performance liquid chromatography analys…
The baculovirus display technology--an evolving instrument for molecular screening and drug delivery.
2008
High throughput screening is a core technology in drug discovery. During the past decade, several strategies have been developed to screen (poly)peptide libraries for diverse applications including disease diagnosis and profiling, imaging, as well as therapy. The recently established baculovirus display vector system (BDVS) represents a eukaryotic screening platform that combines the positive attributes of both cell and virus-based display approaches, allowing presentation of complex polypeptides on cellular and viral surfaces. Compared to microbial display systems, the BDVS has the advantage of correct protein folding and post-translational modifications similar to those in mammals, facili…
GM-CSF restores innate, but not adaptive, immune responses in glucocorticoid-immunosuppressed human blood in vitro.
2003
Abstract Infection remains the major complication of immunosuppressive therapy in organ transplantation. Therefore, reconstitution of the innate immunity against infections, without activation of the adaptive immune responses, to prevent graft rejection is a clinically desirable status in transplant recipients. We found that GM-CSF restored TNF mRNA and protein expression without inducing IL-2 production and T cell proliferation in glucocorticoid-immunosuppressed blood from either healthy donors or liver transplant patients. Gene array experiments indicated that GM-CSF selectively restored a variety of dexamethasone-suppressed, LPS-inducible genes relevant for innate immunity. A possible ex…