Category: Immunity

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Cancer Immunity Microbiome

Human microbiome-derived bacterial strains with antitumor activity

Vedanta Biosciences, a clinical-stage company developing a new category of therapies for immune-mediated diseases based on rationally defined consortia of human microbiome-derived bacteria, today announced a publication in Nature reporting a newly discovered mechanism underlying antitumor immunity that involves human microbiota-driven induction of interferon-gamma-producing (IFNy+) CD8+ T cell accumulation in the gut and tumors.

Led by Vedanta’s scientific co-founder Kenya Honda, M.D., Ph.D., of Keio University School of Medicine, the research also led to the identification and selection of a defined consortium of human microbiome-derived bacterial strains that harnesses this mechanism of antitumor activity and cooperatively potentiates responses to checkpoint inhibitor therapies and immune challenges in general. Based on this research, Vedanta is advancing VE800, a proprietary clinical candidate designed to enhance immune responses…

Cancer Immunity Metabolites Microbiome Nutrition

Gut microbiome regulates the intestinal immune system

A new study in mice unveils the role of vitamin A in immune system regulation, a finding that could assist in developing treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases as well as vitamin A deficiency.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.  — Scientists have long known that bacteria in the intestines, also known as the microbiome, perform a variety of useful functions for their hosts, such as breaking down dietary fiber in the digestive process and making vitamins K and B7.

Yet a new study unveils another useful role the microbiome plays. A team of researchers from Brown University found that in mice, the gut microbiome regulates the host’s immune system — so that rather than the host’s defense system attacking these…

Cancer Immunity Microbiome

Gut bacteria influence the progression of multiple myeloma

By interacting with the immune system, some types of gut bacteria can influence the progression of multiple myeloma, a tumor that affects the bone marrow causing pain, anemia and bone fragility.

The discovery, limited so far to the animal model of the disease, is published today in Nature Communications by the team of Matteo Bellone, head of Cellular immunology Unit at IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele. The study, supported by AIRC – The Italian Association for Cancer Research – is among the first to trace a direct link between intestinal microbiota and a tumor located in a different organ, thus demonstrating the capability of these bacteria to interact with the whole organism. Moreover, researchers identified a biological marker that could…

Immunity Metabolites Microbiome Nutrition

Every meal triggers inflammation

When we eat, we do not just take in nutrients – we also consume a significant quantity of bacteria. The body is faced with the challenge of simultaneously distributing the ingested glucose and fighting these bacteria. This triggers an inflammatory response that activates the immune systems of healthy individuals and has a protective effect, as doctors from the University and the University Hospital Basel have proven for the first time. In overweight individuals, however, this inflammatory response fails so dramatically that it can lead to diabetes.

It is well known that type 2 diabetes (or adult-onset diabetes) leads to chronic inflammation with a range of negative impacts. A number of clinical studies have therefore treated diabetes by impeding the over-production of a substance involved…