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r disease. Dr. Bracken said: "For instance, rheumatoid arthritis is a condition in which the immune system attacks the cells that line your joints. sEH inhibitors could be trialled alongside existing medications to investigate if they can help prevent or slow down joint damage incurred by the condition." Dr. Caroline Aylott, Head of Research Delivery at Arthritis UK, said: "The pain of arthritis can affect how we move, think, sleep and feel, along with our ability to spend time with loved ones. Pain is incredibly complex and is affected by many different factors. We also know that everybody's pain is different. "That is why it is important that we invest in research like this, that helps us understand what causes and influences people's experience of pain. "We are excited to see the results of this study which has found a natural process that could stop inflammation and pain. We hope in the future that this will lead to new pain management options for people with arthritis." The study was funded by Arthritis UK and included researchers from UCL, King's College London, University of Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, USA. Notes *Intermediate monocytes are white blood cells that help fight infection and repair tissue. In short bursts, they help coordinate the immune response and support recovery, but if they persist or grow in excess, they keep the immune system switched on, leading to chronic inflammation.

ackground noise, the system can detect extremely low biomarker concentrations with high sensitivity. "Instead of viewing DNA only as a biological substance, we use it as programmable building blocks, allowing us to assemble the components of our sensor with nanometer-level precision," said Zhang. "By combining optical nonlinear sensing, which effectively minimizes background noise, with an amplification-free design, our method offers a distinct balance of speed and precision." Successful Lung Cancer Testing in Human Serum To evaluate real world performance, the researchers focused on miR-21, a microRNA biomarker associated with lung cancer. After confirming that the device could detect miR-21 in a controlled buffer solution, they tested it using human serum from lung cancer patients to simulate an actual blood test. "The sensor worked exceptionally well, showing that integrating optics, nanomaterials and biology can be an effective strategy to optimize a device," said Zhang. "The sensor was also highly specific -- ignoring other similar RNA strands and detecting only the lung cancer target." The next goal is to shrink the optical system. The researchers aim to develop a portable version that could be used at the bedside, in outpatient clinics, or in remote areas with limited medical resources.

nia School of Medicine. "Understanding how the immune system fights Toxoplasma is important for several reasons. People with compromised immune systems are vulnerable to this infection, and now we have a better understanding of why and how we can help patients fight this infection." Caspase-8 and the Self-Destruct Defense Harris and her team discovered that CD8+ T cells rely on a powerful enzyme called caspase-8 to control T. gondii . Caspase-8 plays a central role in regulating immune responses and can trigger a process that causes a cell to self-destruct. In laboratory experiments, mice that lacked caspase-8 in their T cells developed far higher levels of T. gondii in their brains compared to mice whose T cells produced the enzyme. This happened even though both groups mounted strong immune responses against the infection. The difference in outcomes was striking. Mice with caspase-8 remained healthy, while those without it became severely ill and died. Examination of their brain tissue showed that their CD8+ T cells were much more likely to be infected by the parasite. These findings indicate that caspase-8 plays a crucial role in limiting T. gondii inside T cells. The results also add to growing evidence that this enzyme is broadly important in helping the body control infectious threats. "We scoured the scientific literature to find examples of pathogens infecting T cells. We found very few examples," said Harris, part of UVA's Department of Neuroscience. "Now, we think w

A parasite that may already be living in your brain has the ability to infect the very immune cells designed to eliminate it. New research from UVA Health explains how the body still manages to keep this infection under control. Toxoplasma gondii is a potentially dangerous parasite that infects warm blooded animals. People are most often exposed through contact with cats, contaminated fruits or vegetables, or undercooked meat. After entering the body, the parasite can spread to multiple organs and eventually settle in the brain, where it can remain for life. Roughly one third of the global population is believed to carry Toxoplasma, yet most people never develop symptoms. When illness does occur, known as toxoplasmosis, it is most serious in individuals with weakened immune systems. Researchers led by Tajie Harris, PhD, set out to understand how the immune system responds when Toxoplasma invades CD8+ T cells, which are specialized immune cells responsible for killing infected cells. "We know that T cells are really important for combatting Toxoplasma gondii , and we thought we knew all the reasons why. T cells can destroy infected cells or cue other cells to destroy the parasite. We found that these very T cells can get infected, and, if they do, they can opt to die. Toxoplasma parasites need to live inside cells, so the host cell dying is game over for the parasite," said Harris, the director of the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG Center) at the University of Virgi