C ancer vaccines have been pursued for over a century in an attempt to harness the specificity and many resistance potentials of the immune system (1). Recent advances in immunology, including the importance of antigen-presenting dendritic cells (DCs) in initiating T cell immunity against pathogens and tumors, have provided new guidelines for immunotherapy. Simultaneously over the last decade, ...

background: the role of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (mmp9) in tumor invasion and progression is prominent. a single nucleotide polymorphism (snp) in the promoter region of mmp9 (-1562 c/t) increases the transcription and expression of this gene. on the other hand, mhc class i chain-related protein a and b (mica/b) in soluble forms may impair tumor immunogenicity by reducing natural killer group ...

UNLABELLED CD56+ natural killer (NK) and CD56+ T cells, from sputum or bronchoalveolar lavage of subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are more cytotoxic to highly susceptible NK targets than those from control subjects. Whether the same is true in lung parenchyma, and if NK activity actually contributes to emphysema progression are unknown. To address these questions, we p...

BACKGROUND Melioidosis is a life threatening infectious disease caused by the gram-negative bacillus Burkholderia pseudomallei predominantly found in southeast Asia and northern Australia. Studying the host transcription profiles in response to infection is crucial for understanding disease pathogenesis and correlates of disease severity, which may help improve therapeutic intervention and surv...

Unrelated haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has evolved from an experimental protocol to a potentially curative first-line treatment in variety of haematologic malignancies. The continuous refinement protocols and supportive care paired with ongoing achievements the technological field histocompatibility testing enabled this transformation. Without doubt, HLA matching is still for...

Bacterial existence is fraught with stresses, which bacteria counter at two levels, the specific and general stress responses (GSRs). The former is aimed at escaping the specific stress being experienced by the synthesis, for example, under starvation, of enzymes to better capture a scarce nutrient, and tends to be specific to a given stress. But in GSR, a common set of proteins is induced in o...

Psoriasis is a common, chronic, inflammatory skin disorder. A number of genetic loci have been shown to confer risk for psoriasis. Collectively, these offer an integrated model for the inherited basis for susceptibility to psoriasis that combines altered skin barrier function together with the dysregulation of innate immune pathogen sensing and adap-tive immunity. The major histocompatibility c...