Immune Regulation News Volume 3.21 | Jun 10 2011

Super Microscope Enables Scientists To Pinpoint Body’s Immunity ‘Switch’
Using the only microscope of its kind in Australia, medical scientists have seen for the first time the inner workings of T-cells. The discovery overturns prevailing understanding, identifying the exact molecular ‘switch’ that spurs T-cells into action — a breakthrough that could lead to treatments for a range of conditions from auto-immune diseases to cancer. [Press release from The University of New South Wales discussing online prepublication in Nature Immunology]

Scientists Create Humanized Mouse Model for Hepatitis C
Scientists have developed the first genetically humanized mouse model for hepatitis C, an achievement that will enable researchers to test molecules that block entry of the hepatitis C virus into cells as well as potential vaccine candidates. [Press release from The Rockefeller University discussing online prepublication in Nature]

Scientists Boost Antitumor Effects of Dendritic Cell Therapy Using Inflammatory Virus
Scientists have found that infecting tumors in mice with an inflammatory virus prior to tumor-specific dendritic cell (DC) vaccination significantly boosts the immune system’s anticancer response. [Press release from Genetic Engineering News discussing online prepublication in The Journal of Clinical Investigation]

In Vivo Imaging of Treg Cells Providing Immune Privilege to the Haematopoietic Stem-Cell Niche
Researchers sought to determine if somatic stem-cell niches more broadly are immune-privileged sites by examining the haematopoietic stem/progenitor cell niche in the bone marrow, a site where immune reactivity exists. [Nature]

Pre-Existing Clusters of the Adaptor Lat Do Not Participate in Early T Cell Signaling Events
Using super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, researchers found that pre-existing Lat domains were neither phosphorylated nor laterally transported to TCR activation sites, which suggested that these clusters do not participate in T cell antigen receptor signaling. [Nat Immunol]

The Sphingosine 1-Phosphate Receptor S1P2 Maintains the Homeostasis of Germinal Center B Cells and Promotes Niche Confinement
Here researchers show that S1P2-deficient germinal center (GC) B cells outgrew their wild-type counterparts in chronically established GCs. [Nat Immunol]

IFIT1 is an Antiviral Protein that Recognizes 5′-Triphosphate RNA
By an affinity proteomics approach with PPP-RNA as the ‘bait’, researchers found that the antiviral protein IFIT1 (interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 1) mediated binding of a larger protein complex containing other IFIT family members. [Nat Immunol]

Protection from Endogenous Perforin: Glycans and the C-Terminus Regulate Exocytic Trafficking in Cytotoxic Lymphocytes
An intact C terminus and N-linked glycosylation provide accurate and efficient export of perforin from the endoplasmic reticulum to the secretory granules and are critical for cytotoxic lymphocyte survival. [Immunity]

Virus-Induced Tumor Inflammation Facilitates Effective DC Cancer Immunotherapy in a Treg-Dependent Manner in Mice
In this study, researchers have identified intratumoral virus-induced inflammation as a precondition for effective antitumor DC vaccination in mice. [J Clin Invest]

Self-Antigen Presentation by Mouse B Cells Results in Regulatory T-Cell Induction Rather than Anergy or Clonal Deletion
In this study, researchers used different transgenic mouse models to obtain chimeras where a neo self-antigen is expressed by thymic epithelium and/or by DC or B cells. [Blood]

IL-17–Producing Invariant NKT Cells in Lymphoid Organs are Recent Thymic Emigrants Identified by Neuropilin-1 Expression
Here researchers show that neuropilin-1, a transmembrane receptor mainly found on T regulatory cells in the murine immune system, is specifically expressed on recent thymic emigrant invariant NKT cells in naive mice. [Blood]

Kit (W^-sh) Mice Develop Earlier and More Severe Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis Due to Absence of Immune Suppression
Researchers investigated the role of mast cells (MC) in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis using the W^-sh mouse strain, which is MC deficient. [J Immunol]

Knockdown of HMGB1 in Tumor Cells Attenuates Their Ability To Induce Regulatory T Cells and Uncovers Naturally Acquired CD8 T Cell-Dependent Antitumor Immunity
The data suggest that tumor cell-derived high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) may suppress naturally acquired CD8 T cell-dependent antitumor immunity via enhancing regulatory T cells to produce IL-10, which is necessary for Treg-mediated immune suppression. [J Immunol]

Internationally Acclaimed Immunologist Shares $1 Million Shaw Prize
Dr. Bruce Beutler, an internationally recognized leader in immunology recruited to be the director of a new Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is one of three winners to share the $1 million 2011 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine for their work on innate immunity. [UT Southwestern Medical Center Press Release]

Quest PharmaTech Provides Oregovomab Chemo Immunotherapy Clinical Trial and other Corporate Updates
Quest PharmaTech Inc., a pharmaceutical company developing and commercializing products for the treatment of cancer, announced that it conducted its first clinical Investigators Meeting for Oregovomab in Rome, Italy. [Quest Pharmatech Inc. Press Release]

Oxford BioMedica Announces 5T4 Antibody Research Collaboration with ImaginAb
Oxford BioMedica plc, a leading gene therapy company, announces that it has signed a research collaboration agreement with ImaginAb, Inc., a biotechnology company specialising in the development of engineered antibody fragments for diagnostic imaging and novel therapeutic applications, to engineer an in vivo diagnostic imaging agent using an antibody targeting the Company’s proprietary 5T4 tumour antigen. [Oxford BioMedica Press Release]

Adaptive TCR Raises $5.8 Million in Series B Funding to Expand ImmunoSEQ Platform
Adaptive TCR Corporation, a leading provider of online solutions for large scale immune system profiling under the brand name immunoSEQ, announced that it has completed its Series B investment round, raising $5.8 million from private investors, adding to its previous $4.5 million financing announced in March 2010. [Adaptive TCR Technologies]

National Institutes of Health (United States)

Food and Drug Administration (United States)

Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (United States)

European Medicines Agency (European Union)

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (United Kingdom)

Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia)

NEW British Society for Immunology Congress
December 5-8, 2011
Liverpool, England

Visit our events page to see a complete list of events in the immune regulation community.

Chemist (STEMCELL Technologies)

Research and Development Senior Technologist (STEMCELL Technologies)

Proteomics, Vascular Biology/Angiogenesis, or Immunology (St.Michael’s Hospital/University of Toronto)

Research Scientist in Immunology (Nestle Research Center)

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