Unsuspected discovery of abnormal antibodies could explain pediatric cancer - Frontiers

Credit: FatCamera / Getty Images Children who develop cancer produce an unusually high number of antibodies that attack DNA repair machinery, new research suggests. The findings, published in Frontiers in Immunology, could help lead to early screening that prevents cancer from developing later on, during adolescence. The pathogenic, penetrating autoantibodies, which can cross over into cells, predominantly targeted six proteins involved in DNA repair. They may represent a previously unrecognized mechanism through which people are predisposed to cancer at a young age.

Wits University news releaseIn a landmark HIV prevention trial, an antibody blocked viruses most vulnerable to it, but others broke through. Now researchers have uncovered how HIV evolved after those infections – and why the amount of antibody in the body is an essential part of the story. The Antibody-Mediated Prevention (AMP) trials enrolled more than 4,600 volunteers across Africa, the Americas, and Europe to test VRC01, a laboratory-made broadly neutralising antibody (bnAb). In the AMP trial, VRC01 did not significantly reduce HIV infections overall, although it reduced infections caused by highly sensitive strains by about 75%.  This study showed that HIV requires high antibody titers, and it illustrates the importance of maintaining those titers throughout the dosing cycle. A new study published in Nature Microbiology has now examined what happened after infection in people who received VRC01. The findings show how a virus can respond to antibody pressure – and offer clues for improving future antibodies and vaccines. Read the full news release here.

Yona Tugg and colleagues show that a polyclonal secretory immunoglobulin A preparation, purified from breast milk pooled from multiple donors, neutralized respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human adenovirus type 5, and H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A viruses in laboratory assays. In mouse models of H1N1 influenza infection, two intranasal doses of LCTG-001, given two hours before and 24 hours after infection, reduced illness and lung damage in both immunocompetent and antibody-deficient mice. In immunocompetent mice, lung viral loads were lower early in infection but comparable to controls later, despite less lung damage and better lung barrier integrity.

Mud from a fjord shows an Atlantic air pattern brought wetter, colder spells to southern Greenland, a clue to how its ice may fare. Greenland’s ice is shrinking as the planet warms. But in the island’s southwest, rainfall and snowfall have been influenced by the same North Atlantic air-pressure pattern for at least 5,000 years. When that pattern tipped one way, the region turned wetter and colder. The record comes from mud on the floor of a Greenland fjord, and it suggests snowfall, not only temperature, shaped how the area’s ice grew and shrank. It doesn’t yet show how glaciers there will respond to the warming ahead. Johan Faust, a researcher at MARUM, the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen in Germany, led the work with colleagues in Germany, Norway, Denmark and Canada. A seesaw in the airThe pattern is called the North Atlantic Oscillation. It’s the difference in air pressure between a low that sits near Iceland and a high near the Azores, and it’s strongest in winter. When that difference is large, the pattern is in its positive phase. Northwestern Europe and southwestern Greenland both get more rain and snow.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher Isaiah Santistevan led the development of three-dimensional simulations exploring how a nuclear device could deflect or disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth. Credit: Blaise Douros/LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are developing three-dimensional simulations to examine how a nuclear device could be used to deflect or potentially disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth.