Thanks to antiretroviral therapy, HIV infection is no longer the life sentence it once was. But despite the effectiveness of drugs to manage and treat the virus, it can never be fully eliminated from the human body, lingering in some cells deep in different human tissues where it goes unnoticed by the immune system. Now, new research by University of Alberta immunologist Shokrollah Elahi reveals a possible answer to the mystery of why infected people can’t get rid of HIV altogether. Elahi and his team found that in HIV patients, killer T cells — a type of white blood cells responsible for identifying and destroying cells infected with viruses — have very little to none of a protein called CD73. Because CD73 is responsible for migration and cell movement into the tissue, the lack of the protein compromises the ability of killer T cells to find and eliminate HIV-infected cells, explained Elahi.

Researchers have been able to re-engineer red blood cells and use them as a promising new vehicle for vaccine delivery.

Scientists determined that 9/11 first responders to the World Trade Center have increased levels of mutations that escalate their risk for blood cancers or cardiovascular disease, according to a new study.

Over 90 percent of patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder, no longer needed monthly blood transfusions years after receiving gene therapy, according to an international Phase 3 clinical trial that for the first time included children younger than 12 years of age. Twenty-two patients were evaluated (ranging in age 4-34 years), including pediatric patients.

T-cell responses directed against the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were associated with protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection in vaccinated individuals with or without cancer, with lower T-cell responses observed in patients with blood cancers, according to a new study.

Acute myeloid leukemia, which affects blood and bone marrow cells, is a particularly dangerous form of cancer. More than half of patients under the age of 60 die. This proportion rises to 85% for patients over 60. A team has now identified a previously unknown mechanism that could lead to the development of new therapies. The selective activation of AMPK, a key enzyme in the energy balance of tumor cells, would indeed lead to their death by triggering the cells stress response. Moreover, the scientists have successfully exploited this energy gap in an animal model of the disease: a combination of two drugs — one of which is already on the market — has indeed shown promise. However, their effectiveness has yet to be confirmed on leukaemia stem cells, which have the ability to escape many treatments to restart tumor growth.

A team of researchers has discovered blood biomarkers that can potentially predict patient response in the treatment of melanoma.

Researchers have discovered that metabolic changes affect how blood cells are formed during embryonic development. They found a previously unknown metabolic switch with a key role in how different types of blood cells develop. This means blood cell formation can be directed towards producing natural killer cells in the laboratory to ultimately be used in a new anti-cancer treatment.

Researchers discover a ’switch‘ specific to transcription factors that induce the genes essential for blood vessel development in postnatal periods. Mouse models further showed that the modifiers responsible for the switch are critical for postnatal angiogenesis.

When tumors spread, cancer cells migrate to other parts of the body through the blood or lymphatic vessels. Scientists have now found a new protein that prevents cancer cells from doing so by making them stick more tightly to their surroundings. Their findings could in the future help doctors determine the aggressiveness of a tumor and fine-tune the therapy.

A protein that masterminds the way DNA is wrapped within chromosomes has a major role in the healthy functioning of blood stem cells, which produce all blood cells in the body, according to a new study.

The combination of a novel blood test and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can reduce overdiagnosis of low-risk cancers as well as societal costs in prostate cancer screening, according to a cost-effectiveness study.

The most dangerous side effect of allogeneic blood stem cell transplantation, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), has still not been sufficiently researched. The world’s largest blood stem cell donor center DKMS wants to change that – it is the declared goal of the non-profit organization to improve the survival and healing chances of blood cancer patients. In the fight against GvHD, DKMS research teams have now launched two new scientific studies.

The level of magnesium in the blood is an important factor in the immune system’s ability to tackle pathogens and cancer cells. Researchers have reported that T cells need a sufficient quantity of magnesium in order to operate efficiently. Their findings may have important implications for cancer patients.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of white blood cells. Researchers discovered that AML cancer cells depend on a protein called SCP4 to survive. They think the previously little-known protein is involved in a metabolic pathway the cancer cells need to survive. SCP4 provides researchers with a potential new therapeutic approach for this aggressive cancer.

Removing one type of T cell from donor blood used for stem cell grafts could greatly reduce a serious complication called graft-versus-host disease in patients with leukemia, according to a new study.

Researchers have developed a unique nanoparticle to deliver genome editing technology, including CRISPR/Cas9, to endothelial cells, which are cells that line blood vessel walls. This is the first time that vascular endothelial cells could be reached for genome editing, since the usual way to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 — through a virus — does not work for this cell type.

Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), together with colleagues from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the university hospitals in Bonn and Aachen, have found a type of immune cells that is particularly active in severely ill COVID-19 patients. The CD16 positive T cells have an increased cytotoxic effect, especially on the inner cell layer of blood vessels. Their presence, along with complement system factors, is associated with a highly fatal outcome of the disease. The scientists have just published their findings in the scientific journal Cell.

Despite the Corona pandemic, the German Society for Tissue Transplantation (DGFG) has once again succeeded in further expanding tissue donation and supplying more patients with corneas, heart valves, blood vessels and amniotic membranes: with the help of the total of 2,897 tissue donations realized, the DGFG was able to provide more than 7,000 patients with a tissue transplant last year, including 4,145 with a cornea. This means that DGFG more than doubled the number of tissues donated for transplantation in the past ten years (2011: 3,143 tissues donated). The pandemic is also apparently ensuring a high level of solidarity among the population: 42 percent agreed to donate tissue.

Immunotherapies called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells use genetically engineered versions of a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. These treatments have energized cancer care, especially for people with certain types of blood cancers. Now, scientists have developed new CAR T cells that can do something their predecessors cannot: Make drugs.

A molecular building block of many animal proteins, the amino acid valine, plays a key role in cancerous growth seen in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a new study shows.

Intensive lifestyle intervention with plenty of exercise helps people with prediabetes improve their blood glucose levels over a period of years and thus delay or even prevent type 2 diabetes. In particular, individuals with prediabetes at highest risk benefited from intensive lifestyle intervention. This is shown by the evaluation of the Prediabetes Lifestyle Intervention Study (PLIS) of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), which was conducted at 8 sites of the center throughout Germany. The results have been published in the journal ‘Diabetes’.

Using cannabis alongside other drugs may come with a significant risk of harmful drug-drug interactions, new research suggests. The researchers looked at cannabinoids–a group of substances found in the cannabis plant — and their major metabolites found in cannabis users‘ blood and found that they interfere with two families of enzymes that help metabolize a wide range of drugs prescribed for a variety of conditions. As a result, either the drugs‘ positive effects might decrease or their negative effects might increase with too much building up in the body, causing unintended side effects such as toxicity or accidental overdose. While more research needs to be done, the authors said one early takeaway from these studies is that it’s important to be careful when using cannabis with other prescription drugs.

A study in mice has found that stress and tissue damage initiated by angiotensin II, a molecule that is known to increase blood pressure and stiffening in the linings of blood vessels, leads to cellular senescence, a process by which a cell ages and permanently stops dividing but does not die. Importantly, when the researchers eliminated senescent cells from the mice, tissues returned to a normal state in spite of a continued infusion of angiotensin II.

A new study suggests that enlargement of stem cells contributes to age-related decline in function. The researchers found that blood stem cells, which are among the smallest cells in the body, lose their ability to perform their normal function — replenishing the body’s blood cells — as they grow larger. When the cells were restored to their usual size, they behaved normally again.