{"id":9901,"date":"2016-09-23T09:13:06","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T09:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=9901"},"modified":"2016-09-23T09:13:06","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T09:13:06","slug":"potential-new-way-to-sway-the-immune-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/potential-new-way-to-sway-the-immune-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential new way to sway the immune system"},"content":{"rendered":"

ME Global Chronicle<\/b><\/a> article, by Madeline McCurry-Schmidt, Aug 2016\u00a0 Found: A Potential New Way to Sway the Immune System (not specifically about ME)<\/p>\n

A new international collaboration involving scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) opens a door to influencing the immune system, which would be useful to boost the effectiveness of vaccines or to counter autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.<\/p>\n

The research<\/a>, published August 1, 2016, in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, focused on a molecule called microRNA-155 (miR-155), a key player in the immune system\u2019s production of disease-fighting antibodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting to see exactly how this molecule works in the body,\u201d said TSRI Associate Professor Changchun Xiao, who co-led the study with Professor Wen-Hsien Liu of Xiamen University in Fuijan province, China.<\/p>\n

An Immune System Tango<\/strong>
\nOur cells rely on molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs) as a sort of \u201cdimmer switches\u201d to carefully regulate protein levels and combat disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople know miRNAs are involved in immune response, but they don\u2019t know which miRNAs and how exactly,\u201d explained TSRI Research Associate Zhe Huang, study co-first author with Liu and Seung Goo Kang of TSRI and Kangwon National University.<\/p>\n

In the new study, the researchers focused on the roles of miRNAs during the critical period when the immune system first detects \u201cinvaders\u201d such as viruses or bacteria. At this time, cells called T follicular helpers proliferate and migrate to a different area of the lymph organs to interact with B cells.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do a sort of tango,\u201d said Xiao.\u00a0 This interaction prompts B cells to mature and produce effective antibodies, eventually offering long-term protection against infection.
\n\u201cThe next time you encounter that virus, for example, the body can respond quickly,\u201d said Xiao.<\/p>\n

Identifying a Dancer<\/strong>
\nUsing a technique called deep sequencing, the team identified miR-155 as a potential part of this process. Studies in mouse models suggested that miR-155 works by repressing a protein called Peli1. This leaves a molecule called c-Rel free to jump in and promote normal T cell proliferation.<\/p>\n

This finding could help scientists improve current vaccines. While vaccines are life-saving, some vaccines wear off after a decade or only cover around 80 percent of those vaccinated.
\n\u201cIf you could increase T cell proliferation using a molecule that mimics miR-155, maybe you could boost that to 90 to 95 percent,\u201d said Xiao. He also sees potential for using miR-155 to help in creating longer-lasting vaccines.<\/p>\n

The research may also apply to treating autoimmune diseases, which occur when antibodies mistakenly attack the body\u2019s own tissues. Xiao and his colleagues think an mRNA inhibitor could dial back miR-155\u2019s response when T cell proliferation and antibody production is in overdrive.<\/p>\n

For the next stage of this research, Xiao plans to collaborate with scientists on the Florida campus of TSRI to test possible miRNA inhibitors against autoimmune disease.
\nIn addition to Xiao, Huang, Liu and Kang, authors of the study, \u201cA miR-155-Peli1-c-Rel pathway controls the generation and function of T follicular helper cells<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0 were Cheng-Jang Wu and Li-Fan Lu of the University of California, San Diego; Yi Liu and Alexander Hoffmann of the University of California, Los Angeles; Shunbin Xu of Wayne State University; Guo Fu and Nengming Xiao of Xiamen University; Ye Zheng of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies; and Hyun Yong Jin, Christian J. Maine, Jovan Shepherd, Mohsen Sabouri-Ghomi and Alicia Gonzalez-Martin of TSRI.<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/www.scripps.edu\/newsandviews\/e_20160815\/xiao.html<\/a>
\nMadeline McCurry-Schmidt,\u00a0 News and Views of The Scripps Research Institute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ME Global Chronicle article, by Madeline McCurry-Schmidt, Aug 2016\u00a0 Found: A Potential New Way to Sway the Immune System (not specifically about ME) A new international collaboration involving scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) opens a door to influencing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[383,3136,3137],"class_list":["post-9901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-immune-system","tag-madeline-mccurry-schmidt","tag-me-global-chronicle"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-2zH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9901"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9917,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901\/revisions\/9917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}