A team of researchers from ZIKAlliance discovers a specific mechanism of the infection
Combining multiple vaccine administration routes achieves a better immune response. This is the finding of a recent study conducted as part of the European CUT’HIVAC project, coordinated by Béhazine Combadière, Inserm Research Director at the Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases (CIMI-Paris, Inserm/Université Pierre et Marie Curie/ CNRS). This research opens new perspectives for "personalized" vaccination in which the immune system's response to infection can be adapted. This research,...
Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) is a gene whose mutations are associated with a rare, hereditary form of colorectal cancer known as familial adenomatous polyposis. Research led by scientists at the Institut Pasteur and Inserm have recently demonstrated that mutations to this gene do not only lead to the emergence of colon polyps; they also harm the immune system, leaving it unable to tackle inflammation of the colonic mucosa. This...
Scientists at the Institut Pasteur, CNRS and Inserm, together with a team from Switzerland*, have shown that the bacterial pathogen Legionella pneumophila (the causative agent of Legionnaires’ disease or legionellosis) has developed a specific strategy to target the host cell mitochondria, the organelles in charge of cellular bioenergetics. By changing the shape of these host organelles, L. pneumophila impairs mitochondrial respiration leading to metabolic changes in the host cell...
Teams from the virology, hematology-bone marrow transplant and biostatistics departments of the Saint-Louis Hospital, AP-HP, Université Paris Diderot and INSERM, in collaboration with scientists from the University of California-San Francisco (USA) discovered that a group of viruses in the intestine may trigger the onset of graft-versus-host disease. Researchers demonstrated the role of this intestinal "virome" (the population of viruses found in the intestine) in the onset of graft-versus-host disease...
The origin, development, and characteristics of two types of testicular macrophage have been described by a CNRS team at the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CNRS / INSERM / Aix-Marseille University). To elucidate the nature of these immune cells, the researchers used a novel cell tracing method. Their findings were published on August 7, 2017, in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, and are of fundamental importance. They may help understand certain kinds of...
Phage therapy involves the use of bacteriophages, or phages, for treating bacterial infections. Phages are viruses that specifically attack bacteria and are harmless to humans. A significant decline in the use of this therapeutic strategy introduced 100 years ago was seen in the West following the development of antibiotics. However, there is now new interest in phage therapy, especially in Europe, given the alarming increase in the number of...
Multidisciplinary teams from the AP-HP Paris public hospitals network (SAMU75 emergency response dispatch centers and Hôpital européen Georges-Pompidou), as well as from Inserm, the Université Paris-Descartes, and the Paris BSPP medical emergency service, compared, in the French capital, two strategies of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) used in patients suffering refractory cardiac arrest (defined as lack of return of spontaneous circulation after 30 minutes of resuscitation). The results of this study,...
Inserm researchers in Rouen (Unit 1234 "PANTHER: Physiopathology, autoimmunity, neuromuscular diseases and regenerative therapies", Inserm/Université de Rouen Normandie) have tested with success a cell therapy aiming to restore the ability of the sphincters to contract in patients with fecal incontinence. As part of a clinical study conducted in partnership with Rouen University Hospital, 60% of the patients who received this innovative therapy observed a reduction in their incontinence.
Researchers led by Jean-Charles Guéry of the Centre for Pathophysiology Toulouse Purpan (Inserm/Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier/ CNRS) are providing new insights into the possible link between male hormones and differences in gender in susceptibility to allergic asthma. This study demonstrates that hormones such as testosterone act on the immune system. The results are to be published in the scientific review The Journal of Experimental Medicine on 1...