Archive for autoimmune disease
Does thyroid cancer in children behave differently than in adults?
Once relatively uncommon, pediatric thyroid cancer is increasing among children and is now the most common type of cancer diagnosed in adolescents. As the oldest program of its kind in the U.S. — and one of the only centers dedicated to pediatric thyroid disease — Boston Children’s Thyroid Center is at the forefront of research on ... Read More
Tim Springer: Scientist, entrepreneur, and mentor
As an undergraduate in 1966, immunologist, biochemist, and biophysicist Timothy A. Springer, PhD, looked askance at science. The Vietnam War was going on, and he saw science as a means of making Agent Orange and napalm. Questioning his own Ivy League education, he left Yale to spend a year as a VISTA volunteer on a ... Read More
Treating inflammation in MIS-C: An evidence-based approach
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a complex, post-COVID-19 spectrum of illness that has affected a small number of children and adolescents. Symptoms can include features of Kawasaki disease, cardiac dysfunction, hypotension and toxic-shock-like signs, abnormal blood coagulation, and prominent GI symptoms. At its core is a hyperinflammatory response that we do not yet ... Read More
Targeting a rogue T cell prevents and reverses multiple sclerosis in mice
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease affecting both adults and children. It’s driven by “helper” T cells, white blood cells that mount an inflammatory attack on the brain and spinal cord, degrading the protective myelin sheath that covers nerve fibers. But there are many different kinds of T helper cells, and up until now, no ... Read More
First sharp images reveal structure of key inflammatory protein
After decades of attempts by the scientific community, researchers have now provided the first clear look at a protein implicated in a vast array of inflammatory conditions. The finding, published recently in Nature, lifts a blindfold that has hampered scientists’ ability to intervene when the immune system overreacts to perceived threats. The protein, known as ... Read More
When even experts can’t figure you out: CNS-restricted HLH
At first it seemed like motion sickness when 5-year-old Emily threw up after spinning around outside, or during car rides. No one thought much of it. But gradually, she also developed headaches and stomachaches. Her walking and balance started to falter. She became lethargic, and complained about something in her eye. Her face took on ... Read More
Skewed T-cell pathway may help explain transplant rejection, autoimmune diseases
Second in a two-part series on transplant tolerance. (See part one.) Our immune system has two major kinds of T cells. T helper cells, also known as effector T cells, tend to rev up our immune responses, while T regulatory cells tend to suppress or downregulate them. Last week we reported that bolstering populations of T ... Read More
Immune gene guards against type 1 diabetes by changing the microbiome. Do early antibiotics undercut its effects?
The health of our immune system is increasingly linked with the health of our intestinal bacteria. A mouse study from Harvard Medical School now hammers this home for autoimmune disorders, in which the body attacks its own cells. It looked specifically at type 1 diabetes, in which the body destroys the cells that make insulin. ... Read More