sciencenote:

Pollen A new process could one day keep millions allergy-free. Wellcome Images

The antibody immunoglobulin E (IgE) works as the sneezy gatekeeper for allergies: it causes your white blood cells to release histamine, which in turn causes all of your favorite allergic responses, from a watery eyes to hay fever. Now, a team of scientists led by Professor Juhu Rouvinen have found a means of genetically modifying allergens so they won’t bind with IgE, while still allowing them to interact with immunoglobulin G. IgG is the friendly cousin of IgE; it keeps allergies out by stopping the IgE-allergen complex from forming. That could block histamine from coming out of white blood cells, and thus block that runny nose. After that, it’s simple, at least in theory: Just load a modified version in a shot and let the immune system take care of the rest.

mama-grizzly:

In a Humoral Immunity response, the cells do not attack, but create antibodies that will attack.

This involves the B Cells. B Cells are not named “B” because they come from the bone marrow, but because they were originally found in the bura of fabricias in birds. The…

bpod-mrc:

Making Memory

Our ability to respond to infections is anchored in a variety of immune cells, including T cells (here dyed blue) and B cells (dyed red, green and white) that look out for invaders. B cells make special proteins – immunoglobulins – that can recognise and bind foreign particles on invaders such as viruses, bacteria, pollen and even food. The reaction allows B cells to ‘remember’ such visitors. Immunoglobulin E (IgE) plays a role in asthma and allergies, when our body mounts a response to innocuous visitors. IgE also helps fight worm infections, although little is known about how it is produced. Scientists looked at the lymph nodes of worm-infected mice, where these cells are made. Here they identify B cells making IgE (green) as those able to remember the disease-causing worm on the event of its return. Understanding immunological memory will help scientists develop better vaccines and treatments.

Written by Gwen Wathne

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• Lawren Wu
• Dept. of Immunology, Genentech, USA
• Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Immunology Copyright 2012
• Published in Nature Immunology

fuckyeahmolecularbiology:

Field emission scanning electron microscope image of a human dendritic cell (blue pseudo-color) in close interaction with a lymphocyte (yellow pseudo-color). This contact may lead to the creation of an immunological synapse.

vetstail:

The Macrophage and the Amoeba

We can see the diversity of different species even within mammals, let alone between different kingdoms. What we fail to see is the similarities visible on a cellular, or even genetic level.

This macrophage is giving a great example of how our white blood cells can behave much like an amoeba. Extending projections called pseudopods to engulf a bacterium, scaffolding (microtubules formed by actin) within the cell are built up to ‘push’ the cell membrane and form an extension filled with cytoplasm.

The mechanism is identical between the single cell amoeba that evolved much closer to the dawn of life than the humble macrophage or neutrophil that is one of millions within your body.

fuckyeahmolecularbiology:

Kupffer cells are specialized macrophages that patrol tiny vessels in the liver called sinusoids, recycling old red blood cells and ingesting pathogens. The endothelium of these vessels is perforated with large holes, allowing the Kupffer cells to migrate into liver tissue at sites of inflammation and damage.

fuckyeahmolecularbiology:

Beating Cancer

This video shows cytotoxic T-lymphocytes killing virally infected tumour cells (red) by secreting cytolytic proteins. The centrosome (red dots) determines where secretion occurs by contacting the plasma membrane at the point where the T cell recognizes the tumor cell.

The video was made by using cytotoxic T-lymphocytes that expressed Cherry and GFP fusion proteins to mark the centrosome and actin, respectively. It shows the complex process of a T cell identifying and destroying a cancerous cell within the human body. The target cells express a blue plasma membrane fusion protein; nuclei are labeled in blue.

I received a lot of questions last night about cancer research, so this video is both meant to be amazing and informative. A major advance in cancer research today is harnessing the capacity of the immune system itself to track down and destroy tumour cells, instead of relying on external treatments and drugs.

Video Credit: The movie, including editing and narration, is courtesy of Cambridge University.

thebioguru:

Eosinophil with a two-lobed nucleus. These types of leukocytes are granular, and specialize in attacking parasitic/helminthic agents.

fuckyeahmolecularbiology:

An SEM image of a phagocyte - nature’s microscopic bodyguards - engulfing a red blood cell identified as dangerous.

The mechanism of activation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells by other cells.