Immune system of new born is transferred from mothers

To help the newborn immune system learn to discriminate between friend and foe, mothers transfer antibodies to their infants via the placenta, recent findings suggest.

As part of a recent study, a team of researchers has determined how a pregnant woman's vaccine-induced immunity is transferred to her child, which has implications for the development of more effective maternal vaccines.
 
"Newborns arrive into the world on the first day of life with brand-new immune systems that, like the children themselves, need to learn to cope with both helpful and harmful microbes in their environment," explained  co-senior author of the study.

According to the researchers, to help the newborn immune system learn to discriminate between friend and foe, mothers transfer antibodies to their infants via the placenta.

The rules by which the placenta performs this absolutely essential function have been unknown but if decoded, could hold the key to generating more powerful vaccines to protect these most precious patients.

While maternal antibodies against some diseases such as measles can be transferred from mother to infant, providing some protection until the child is old enough for individual vaccination, antibodies to other serious diseases like polio are less efficiently transferred.

To investigate the mechanisms by which antibodies are transferred from mother to child, the team of researchers used a novel tool called system serology to compare the quantity and quality of antibodies against pertussis in blood samples from mothers and from the umbilical cords that carry blood, nutrients and immune factors from the placenta to the infant.

Their investigation revealed that the placenta preferentially sifts out and delivers to the infant antibodies that activate natural killer (NK) cells, key elements of the innate immune system. While several important immune cells are too immature in newborns to provide effective protection, NK cells are among the most abundant and functional immune cells during the first days of life.

The team found a similar preference for the placental transfer of NK-activating antibodies against influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, a common disease of childhood, and also identified antibody features that appear to regulate placental selection, features that could possibly be built into next-generation vaccines with improved mother-to-child antibody transfer.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                                                                      FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                     https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com

7 Interesting Facts About The Human Immune System

The human body is an absolute marvel of science and biology, with every limb, bone, tissue and cell having their own important functions. One of the most important systems in the body has to be the immune system. Our immunity is what keeps us alive in a world teeming with bacteria and germs. If you've ever seen the movie "The Boy In The Plastic Bubble" (1976), you might gain some understanding of what the world can be like if you have no immune system.

Our knowledge about this particular system has revolutionized medicine, propelling the creation of most vaccinations, that have drastically increased the average human life span. To give you a little bit more insight into this incredible system of warriors and protectors, here are 7 facts you may not have known about your immune system.

1. Laughter can really be the best medicine
Studies have shown the general positive effects that laughter can have on the body. Laughter (and enjoyment in general) can increase the production of dopamine, serotonin and other feel-good hormones released by the brain, which can drastically reduce stress.
According to a study, laughter can also boost your immune system by increasing the cytotoxicity (which is basically the ability of one type of cell to foreign cells) of NK cells (natural killer cells). Natural Killer Cells are the type of white blood cells that can actually differentiate between infected or cancerous cells, and normal ones.
They can avoid the latter and wipe out only the former in a much more effective way. 

2. White blood cells are the 1%
White blood cells, also called Leukocytes, are the knights of the human body, fighting off harmful bacteria and keeping your body free of infections and viruses. It is one of the most important components of the human body. So one would think that the bloodstream is chock-full of these heroes, but in reality, they only make up 1% of the cells in your blood.

In this case, though, the 1% is pretty large, with up to 10,000 white blood cells in every microlitre (one-millionth of a litre) of blood. That counts for a lot when you consider the fact that there are 5 liters of blood in the human body. These cells are always on the move in the bloodstream, hunting down possible invaders, anywhere they might be.

3. Cows revolutionized our immunity
People first began experimenting with inoculation in the 1700's by introducing milder, but still deadly elements of the smallpox virus taken from previously inoculated patients, so the immune system could develop a resistance to the virus. Though this method was quite effective, it still resulted in many deaths.

It was eventually discovered that dairymaids had developed a stronger immunity to smallpox than most people when they had been previously exposed to cowpox, a disease with a lower fatality rate than Variolation (which is what the method of inoculation for small pox, also known as Variola, was called). Using this knowledge and the cowpox virus, Edward Jenner pioneered a small pox vaccine in 1796.

4. There is such a thing as too clean
The common belief is that the cleaner our environment is, the safer we are. But this is a misconception bred and borne by us. In truth, an extremely clean environment can halt the development of your immune system.

Your immune system ends up not getting exposed to many of the foreign particles that usually help it develop anti-bodies and become stronger. This can be especially problematic for children, whose immune systems require that exposure to develop and grow.

5. Allergies are just the immune system’s mistakes
Everybody makes mistakes and your immune system is no different. Most of the reactions your body has to substances you're allergic to arise because the immune system gets confused and mistakenly takes the foreign substance, be it pollen, peanuts or dust, to be a dangerous foreign particle.

So it reacts the way it's built to react to anything that it has understood to be harmful and attacks the substance in your body, doing some damage to your body in the process. This causes many of the symptoms we experience, from itchiness to swelling in different areas.

6. Women are more vulnerable to immune system  attacks
 Autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, basically occur when the immune system gets all turned up. It becomes extra defensive and is unable to differentiate harmful foreign bodies from healthy cells and tissues in the body. So it begins to attack perfectly healthy cells, which can cause inflammation, severe pain and numerous other serious health problems. But as it turns out, autoimmune diseases are somewhat selective.

While less than 10% of the population in the USA suffer from auto-immune diseases, an article published in 2008 observed that nearly a whopping 80% of those suffering from autoimmune diseases were women. Women can be especially vulnerable to these diseases during ovulation, pregnancy and immediately after giving birth.

7. Stress, sleep, sunlight and your immune system Stress is not good for your immune system. Too much stress may result in your immune system getting suppressed, which directly increases the likelihood of you catching a virus.

Lack of sleep similarly affects your immune system, reducing the number of natural killer cells in your body, and can even reduce the effects of vaccinations as a result, as observed in a 2012 study.

Sunlight can have mixed effects. Exposure to sunlight can increase the Vitamin D in your body, as well as the production of serotonin, which keeps you happy, and can help reduce stress. But high levels of exposure to ultraviolet radiation and sunlight can result in the suppression of the immune system, and thereby an increased vulnerability to infections and viruses. As with most things, a little is good for you, a lot can be bad.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                         FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/           

                   FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                                  https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com

 

Researchers Engineer A Way To Make Leukemia Cells Kill Each Other

Researchers have been battling to find the cure for cancer since we began to understand what cancer really was. A cure is the ultimate goal, but most medical professionals and patients would be ecstatic even hearing about new treatments. Current cancer treatments often come rife with side effects so severe that many choose to forgo them altogether. Stopping the growth of malicious cancer cells is the main goal of treatment, and removing them altogether is even better. The problem is, this kind of treatment almost always causes damage to surrounding healthy cells.

A treatment that changes cancerous cells into healthy, supportive cells sounds ideal. Transforming malignant cells into antibodies that would attack remaining cancer cells sounds too good to be true. Thanks to a groundbreaking study by scientists , this new, powerful form of cancer therapy could really be on the horizon.

An Accidental Discovery

The laboratory team was working on therapies for certain immune cell or blood factor deficiencies when they noticed some unusual effects of antibodies on marrow cells. They had been searching for antibodies that activate growth-factor receptors on immature bone marrow cells, meaning the antibodies would be able to induce these cells to mature into specific blood cell types.

After successfully identifying a number of antibodies that activated the bone marrow cell-receptors this way, the researchers noticed that some of the antibodies were having unexpected effects on the cells. Some of them were maturing into cells that were radically different from what had been expected, such as neural cells. This got the team thinking, could this method be used to convert cancerous marrow cells (leukemia cells) into non-cancerous cells?

Transformation

In the new study, a professor  and senior investigator, teamed up with colleagues, an assistant professor of cellular and molecular biology . They decided to test 20 of the recently discovered receptor-activating antibodies on acute myeloid leukemia cells taken from human patients. One of the antibodies ended up having an incredible impact on the leukemia cells.

Most acute myeloid leukemia cells have the thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor, a receptor the winning antibody selectively and potently activated in marrow cells. When the antibody was applied to healthy marrow cells, the cells matured into blood-platelet-producing cells (megakaryocytes). When applied to the acute myeloid leukemia cells, though, the antibody caused them to mature into dendritic cells, which are key support cells in the body’s immune system.

This alone would have been a success — the researchers had effectively transformed cancerous cells into non-cancerous, helpful immune system cells. The team pushed further, though, and found that with longer exposures to the antibodies and other regulated conditions, the dendritic cells matured even more. The final product was a group of cells that very closely resembled natural killer (NK) cells. One of the body’s rapid immune defenses, NK cells are capable of rapidly attacking potentially dangerous pathogens and tumors even if they don’t contain the biomarkers normally identified by other immune cells.

“That antibody could have turned those acute myeloid leukemia cells into a lot of other cell types, but somehow we were lucky enough to get NK cells,” Dr. said in a press release.

These induced NK cells possessed a few unique characteristics, observed by the team through electron microscopy. The cells possessed extending tendrils that had made their way through the outer membranes of closeby leukemia cells — the kind of cells they would still be, had they not been exposed to the antibody. In lab tests, the NK cells betrayed their former brethren at an impressive pace: a “modest” number of NK cells took out about 15 percent of the surrounding leukemic cell population in only 24 hours.

An interesting detail noted by the researchers is the purely fratricidal nature of the NK cells. They attacked only related leukemia cells, while unrelated breast cancer cells did not die off in large numbers when put into contact with the NK cells. The team is still unclear on why exactly the NK cells behave this way, but hypothesize that other, yet-to-be-discovered antibodies could be the key to turning other cancerous cell types into NK cells.

Researcher has named this type of therapy “fratricidins,” and pointed out that they would have several advantages. The antibodies would be clinically useful with little to no modification, and the high specificity of the NK cells would reduce the likelihood of damage to surrounding healthy cells. This would make fratricidins a possible treatment with much more tolerable effects than traditional treatments like chemotherapy.

On top of that, every cancer cell in a population is potentially convertible, so in a successful therapy the cancer-cell population might not just be reduced, but eliminated entirely.

“It’s a totally new approach to cancer, and we’re working to test it in human patients as soon as possible,” he said. “We’re in discussions with pharmaceutical companies to take this straight into humans after the appropriate preclinical toxicity studies.”


 this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations 
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement