News and Research
Immune System Booster
Part Six
You
might want to check out these links first. The
"Critters!" article is an independent
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News. Body Biotics™ and Prescript-Assist™
are powerful soil-based probiotics.
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The
following articles cover research on many topics about how
to boost the immune system in humans and animals:
 Article
14: Case Researchers
Substantiate Bacterial Link To Preterm Birth Through Mice
Studies Researchers
discovered that a bacterium (Fusobacterium nucleatum) found
in periodontal disease enters the blood, specifically targets
placentas and amniotic fluid of pregnant mice and triggers
preterm or term stillbirths as well as early death for live-born
mice. The researchers also injected mice with the live bacteria,
Fusobacterium nucleatum, from the placenta and amniotic
fluids of women who had given birth to preemie babies. These
bacteria also provided the same results in mice to forge
an even stronger link between the oral bacteria and preterm
births and its transmission to the placenta through the
blood...
Article
13: Mouse Model
Mimics Real-World Plague Infection An
experimental plague vaccine proved 100 percent effective
when tested in a new mouse model for plague infection developed
by scientists. The scientists developed their model to mimic
the natural transmission route of bubonic plague through
the bites of infected fleas. The flea-to-mouse model provides
a more realistic test setting than previously used methods,
enabling a better assessment of a vaccine's ability to protect
against a real-world challenge. The vaccine is an effective
immune system booster...
Article
12: Rochester, BCM
Test Bird-flu Vaccine In Humans Doctors
are beginning the first test in the United States of a vaccine
designed to protect people against one form of bird flu.
While the vaccine under study is not designed to protect
against the precise bird-flu virus causing the current outbreak
in poultry and in people, scientists will learn whether
it protects against another strain of the virus that infects
birds and people. While only about two dozen people worldwide
have died in recent months after becoming infected from
a strain of flu known as H5N1 that is normally found in
birds, bird flu is seen as a potent threat to human health
because of its potential to rip quickly through a human
population. A typical flu virus that normally circulates
in humans causes tens of thousands of deaths each year,
even though most people have some immunity against this
"normal" flu. But avian flu is feared by doctors
because hardly anyone carries any defenses...
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Article
11: Mouse Antibodies Thwart
SARS Virus The
mouse immune system develops antibodies capable of single-handedly
neutralizing the SARS virus, researchers report. Vaccines can
act as immune enhancers to produce antibodies or specialized cells
or both to stop invading viruses. "This is good news for
people developing vaccines that would prime the immune system
to produce antibodies against the SARS virus," says Kanta
Subbarao, M.D., an investigator in NIAID's Laboratory of Infectious
Diseases and lead author on the study. "Our results also
indicate that drug researchers can use laboratory mice as a model
to evaluate whether a drug blocks SARS." Both findings could
help lessen the time it takes to develop an effective vaccine
or antiviral drugs for SARS...
Article
10: DNA Vaccine Protects
Against Anthrax A
new DNA vaccine against anthrax provides complete protection against
aerosolized spores in rabbits. "The naked DNA approach is
vaccination at its simplest. The gene encoding the vaccine is
introduced into the host and expressed in vivo where it stimulates
a protective immune response," says Matthew Bell. Having
previously shown the effectiveness of a DNA vaccine in mice, Bell
and his colleagues tested the vaccine on a higher form of mammal:
rabbits...
Article
9: Protein Helps
Immune System Mount 'Instant Strike' Against Deadly Flu Viruses
Researchers
have identified a protein in the immune system that appears to
play a crucial role in protecting against deadly forms of influenza,
and may be particularly important against emerging flu viruses
like the avian flu. The researchers believe that a vaccine made
with a live but weakened strain of flu virus – such as the
inhaled flu vaccine introduced last year – may activate
this part of the immune system and offer the best defense against
avian flu...
Article
8: In African Highlands,
Climate Extremes Are Critical Factor In Malaria Epidemics
Seasonal
fluctuations in a region's climate, rather than consistently high
annual temperatures or levels of rainfall, play an important role
in causing malaria epidemics in the African highlands. Because
individuals in these highlands lack the strong immune system boost
that people have in regions where malaria transmission occurs
year-round, their mortality rate is far higher. Under normal climatic
conditions, malaria is rare in the highlands because of the region's
cool weather. The mysterious re-emergence of epidemic malaria
since the late 1980s in the East African highlands after a six-decade
hiatus has baffled researchers...
Article
7: Chicken Pox Vaccine Effectiveness
Decreases After First Year, But Still Yields Excellent Protection
From The Virus Yale
researchers have found a major decrease in the effectiveness of
varicella (chicken pox) vaccine after the first year of vaccination,
but the vaccine is still very effective overall. "The effectiveness
of the varicella vaccine does drop substantially from 99 percent
the first year after vaccination to 84 percent two to eight years
after vaccination," said first author Marietta Vazquez, M.D.
"But eight years after vaccination, the overall effectiveness
is 87 percent, which is still excellent." They did not include
the question of when a booster shot would be needed in the study...
Article
6: Disease-fighters
In Our Mouths Provide Clues To Enhancing The Immune System
Studies
of natural antibiotics in our mouths may lead to a boost for the
immune system for oral infections, as well as ways to boost the
infection-fighting powers of mouthwashes, denture coatings, and
wound dressings. "Innate immunity describes the defenses
that we're are born with; they're coded in our genes. In contrast,
we develop the antibodies of our acquired immune system over time
as we're exposed to bacteria and viruses," said Dr. Beverly
Dale...
Article
5: Study Shows Link Between
Antibiotic Use And Increased Risk Of Breast Cancer A
study provides evidence that use of antibiotics is associated
with an increased risk of breast cancer. The authors - from Group
Health Cooperative (GHC) in Seattle; the National Cancer Institute
(NCI), a part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda,
Md.; the University of Washington, Seattle; and the Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Center, also in Seattle - concluded that the more antibiotics
the women in the study used, the higher their risk of breast cancer....
Article
4: Studies Offer New Insight
Into HIV Vaccine Development Mutations
that allow AIDS viruses to escape detection by our immunity response
may also hinder the viruses' ability to grow after transmission
to new hosts. The discovery may help researchers design vaccines
that exploit the notorious mutability of HIV by training the immune
system to attack the virus where it's most vulnerable. The work
appears alongside a study of HIV-infected people performed by
scientists at Harvard Medical School and Oxford University...
Article
3: Early Fevers Associated
With Lower Allergy Risk Later In Childhood Infants
who experience fevers before their first birthday are less likely
to develop allergies by ages six or seven. The exposure to pathogens
acts an as immune enhancer. The study lends support to the well-known
"hygiene hypothesis," which contends that early exposure
to infections might protect children against allergic diseases
in later years. "The prevalence of asthma and allergies has
increased dramatically worldwide in recent years," says Anthony
S. Fauci, M.D., director of NIAID. "This study provides evidence
that diminished exposure to early immunological challenges could
be one of the reasons for this trend."...
Article
2: Natural Killer Cells
Are Made, Not Born Call
it the immune system's version of nature versus nurture. For years,
scientists regarded natural killer cells as a blunt instrument
of the body's immune defense system. Born to kill, these cells
were thought to travel straight from the bone marrow, where they
are manufactured, to the blood, circulating there and infiltrating
the sites of early tumors or infectious agents in the body. Now,
Rockefeller University scientists have learned otherwise. Natural
killer cells, Münz and his colleagues say, have to be nurtured.
Their ability to destroy tumor and infected cells is not present
at birth.....
Article
1: Avian Flu: Shut Down Wild
Bird Markets, Experts Say A
group of scientists and wildlife health experts from the New York-based
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) say that closing Asia's wild
bird markets would reduce the spread of Avian flu. Of note: The
markets place tens of thousands of wild and domestic birds in
close quarters, allowing diseases to make the jump between wild
animals, livestock, and ultimately humans, WCS says. The group
also expressed concern that policies calling for widespread killing
of birds living in the wild to prevent disease would do more harm
than good...
