Anaphylactic shock, an exacerbated allergic reaction that can prove fatal, is sometimes caused by the use of drugs during surgery. In most of these extreme reactions, evidence can be provided that patients have anti-drug antibodies of the IgE class. In 10 to 20% of anaphylactic cases evidence for the involvement of anti-drug IgE is lacking. Anti-drug IgE enable activation of mast cells and basophils that release histamine, a potent...
Researchers from Inserm and Université de Rennes recently identified a new bacterial toxin which they transformed into potent antibiotics active against various bacteria responsible for human infections.
The researchers discovered that not only do the allergens persist in the skin for several weeks but also that they are not alone in doing so. Indeed, immune cells – known as tissue-resident memory T cells – proliferate at the lesion sites and remain there for long periods, reactivating the onset of eczema patches in the event of re-exposure to the allergen.
Today, around 1 in 8 couples seek help because they are struggling to conceive. Infertility has therefore become a public health problem, and the scientific community is rallying in response.
The team of Béhazine Combadière, Inserm Research Director at Unit 1135 "Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases", has been working for years on the impact of vaccine administration routes on the quality of immune responses.
Researchers are now able to edit the genome with precision using the "gene editing scissors" of CRISPR-Cas9, which is a highly promising tool for gene therapy. The technical challenge now is to get this tool into the genome of certain cells. With this in mind, a joint team from Inserm, the CNRS, the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, and the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, working within the International...
1.2 million people in the world are co-infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria which causes tuberculosis, and AIDS (HIV-1). This combination is deadly: it makes patient diagnosis and treatment difficult, and increases the pathogenicity of these two infectious agents. An international team led by researchers at the CNRS and Inserm have revealed that in the presence of tuberculosis, HIV-1 moves from one cell to the next via nanotubes which...
Les microbes colonisent l’ensemble des surfaces de notre corps et participent au bon équilibre de notre système immunitaire. Chez les nouveau-nés, le microbiote intestinal est d’abord formaté par les composants du lait maternel. Lors de la diversification alimentaire, il se développe et de nombreuses bactéries prolifèrent. Des chercheurs de l’Institut Pasteur et de l’Inserm montrent chez la souris qu’une réponse immunitaire importante se produit lors de l’introduction de nourriture...
A mechanism of tolerance towards intestinal flora is thought to be implicated in the onset of a rare familial autoinflammatory disease induced by cold temperatures. This is the finding of researchers from the Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille (Inserm/Université de Lille/CNRS/University Hospital Lille/Institut Pasteur de Lille), the Pathophysiology of Pediatric Genetic Diseases laboratory (Inserm/Sorbonne Université) and the Department of Immunology at the University of Hohenheim. Their research,...
Teams from the Biological Therapy Department and Pediatric Immunohematology Unit at Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital AP-HP, the Fetal Medicine Department at Trousseau Hospital AP-HP, Inserm, the Imagine Institute, Université Paris Descartes and Sorbonne Université have achieved the in utero transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells in a fetus with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency.