Immunology
Benefits of Vitamin A
January 30, 2012 | 
Author 
Today we talk about an essential vitamin for our body, it comes to vitamin A, it satisfies many important functions in our body so it is important that we do not have gaps in it. So today we tell you what are its main benefits.
First of all, keep in mind that the best way to use it in the form of Beta-carotene and canned goods lost almost 30% of total vitamin A and fried foods make disappear this vitamin. This does not mean we can not cook foods that include, but should opt for healthier cooking methods, for example, boiling them.
Among the main benefits of it are the following:
- Increase of immunity.
- Protection against solar radiation.
- Helps prevent chronic diseases.
- Prevent the occurrence of infections at mucosal sites.
- Helps heal wounds.
- It is an important anti-cancer.
- It is essential for the development of the body.
- Avoid eye problems such as night blindness, xerophthalmia, and glaucoma.
- Prevents atherosclerosis and high cholesterol.
- Used to combat aging skin, maintaining the elasticity and hydration. It also helps to remove age spots.
- Increases the male and female fertility, since it intervenes in the formation of steroids and the synthesis of progesterone.
- It is important for the proper operation and maintenance of bones, cartilage and teeth.
Definitely an essential vitamin for our health, so in the next post we told you how much you should consume and where to get it, do not miss it!
Posted in Immunology, Medical News | 
Tags: anti-cancer, Beta-carotene, chronic diseases, Vitamin A | 
No Comments »
Antiretroviral Vaccines
A group of Spanish and French experts, composed of some of the leading researchers in the field of HIV, has a therapeutic vaccine, which is not curative (not preventive), with which to appease the effects of the AIDS virus. The trial is in its early stages and their results, positive so far, are published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases’.
The research involved 24 people with HIV, until then, had not been treated. The experts drew a series of blood samples which, in addition to know the profile of each vaccine manufactured ‘custom’.
Thus, immunizations are created from dendritic cells (defensive cells) and dose of HIV-heated to 56 degrees to switch it off without destroying it-, obtained from the patients themselves and then cultured.
“The virus, weakened, is as dendritic cells, which are responsible for carrying pathogens to the immune system,” said Felipe Garcia, a researcher at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona and lead author of the work.
Cells not infected
Normally, HIV infects the above cells, which act as a ‘Trojan horse’, infecting the rest of the immune system, “but as the virus is inactive, dendritic cells can perform their work without infecting presentation” .
In fact, after receiving three doses of the vaccine, patients showed an increase in their defenses and a significant reduction in viral load (90% less in eight of 18 patients treated over one year).
However, as acknowledged by Josep Maria Gatell, Chief of Infectious Disease in the same Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Immunology, Infectious Diseases, Medical News | Tags: AIDS, AIDS virus, Antiretroviral, Antiretroviral Vaccines, dendritic cells, Infectious Diseases, Vaccines | No Comments »
Circadian Cycle
Argentina researcher , Fernanda Ceriani will receive today the National Award L’oreal-Unesco “For Women in Science a” to recognize scientific excellence, promotes women’s work in this area and has support from CONICET.
Ceriani is 45 and studied biology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, where he met the love of experimentation. He then worked at INTA in plant molecular biology, which motivated her to start work by now is recognized.
In his research “neural mechanisms of circadian behavioral control” the scientific study of the cell life, focusing on understanding the biological clock, the machinery of living organisms that coordinates the timing of physiological functions and behavior during the cycle of day and night.
For that, the scientist worked specifically with the fruit fly as their animal model. This is a simple bug, as humans, is also active during the day and inactive at night.
Among the results challenged a dogma in your area who claimed that these organisms had a different biological clock in humans.
Ceriani showed that both Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Immunology, Medical News | Tags: Circadian, Circadian Cycle, Fernanda Ceriani | No Comments »
Abortion and the Immune System
Implementation is the key moment for both the beginning and the future of pregnancy. Pregnancy loss and implantation failure may be due to an abnormal immune response of autoimmune, with appropriate treatment, the live birth rate increased 70 to 80%.
These causes include thrombophilia and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Women with obstetric APS who are untreated have very poor prognosis of pregnancy with a live birth rate below 20%.
APS is an autoimmune disorder that causes hypercoagulability during pregnancy and is associated with risk of loss and placental vascular complications later. Clinical management has advanced over the last decade even for women who do not respond to standard treatment, from halitus Medical Institute worked with a therapeutic alternative.
The mechanism by which it occurs and leads to adverse events during pregnancy intervene more or less immune imbalance aggressor for pregnancy and hypercoagulability that through the formation of small thrombi leading to a phenomenon of lack of irrigation and oxygen vital to a successful pregnancy.
When a physician diagnoses obstetric SAF?
Clinical criteria
* One or more fetal deaths than or equal to 10 weeks gestation and / or
* Three or more consecutive abortions under 10 weeks gestation and / or
* One or more premature births under 34 weeks of pregnancy associated with placental insufficiency, severe or early preeclampsia, eclampsia, HELLP syndrome, intrauterine growth restriction and / or abrupt placental
Besides these, there must be at least one laboratory test, which require specialist.
Achievement of pregnancy
It is estimated that 100 patients with APS treated with Read the rest of this entry »
HPV and Throat Cancer
The tongue and throat cancer is increasing, especially since there are more cases from infections with human papilloma virus (HPV), according to a study conducted in the United States.
The number of people who were diagnosed with oral cancer linked to HPV in 2004 was three times higher than those diagnosed in 1988. This is mainly due, according to the researchers suspect, changes in sexual behavior that helped spread the virus.
HPV (HPV by its acronym in English) is a sexually transmitted virus very common, which can cause genital warts and certain cancers, including cervical or uterine cervix, anus and penis.
“The relationship between HPV and head and neck cancer completely changed our idea of who is at risk, how to treat cancer, prognosis and prevention,” said Maura Gillison of Ohio State University, who led the study published Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Gillison and colleagues examined oral cancer tissue from 271 patients collected over a period of 20 years. The type of cancer examined, called the oropharynx, originates in the back of the tongue, palate, tonsils, or the side of the throat.
The team looked for evidence of HPV infection in the samples and found that HPV-related cases were increasingly common in every decade, while samples that were not linked to the virus were less frequent.
From the results, the researchers conclude that oral cancer linked to HPV affects 26 per million, compared with eight per million in 1988.
Tina Dalianis, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who was not involved in the study, believes the increase in oral cancers “is due to an epidemic of HPV.”
“We believe that sexual habits have changed, and that there is an increase in sexual activity at younger ages, with a change of many more sexual partners in general,” Dalianis told Reuters Health.
The study confirms what the expert had previously found in Sweden, that oral cancers associated with HPV were becoming the dominant form of the disease.
Previously, the snuff had been the main cause of oral cancer, and most cancer cases were HPV negative. Gillison’s team found that HPV-negative oral cancers dropped by half since the 1980s.
HPV-positive cases, representing only 16 percent of oral cancers in the 80, including more than 70 percent in the 2000s. The good news is that people diagnosed with cancer is HPV positive have a better prognosis, and tumors respond better to treatment, Gillison said.
There is also a potential opportunity to avoid using the HPV vaccine, which is approved to prevent cervical cancer and anal, the expert said. If the vaccine can prevent these cancers caused by HPV in the genital area, maybe I can also work for oropharyngeal cancers.
Posted in Immunology, Oncology | Tags: HPV, Throat Cancer, tongue, uman papilloma virus, virus | No Comments »