The Thin End

New research indicates that taking vitamin D supplements may help prevent a potentially serious side effect of a revolutionary form of anti-cancer therapy. The findings are published early online in CANCER , a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society (ACS). An important capacity of the immune system is its ability to distinguish between normal cells in the body and those it sees as “foreign.” This lets the immune system attack the foreign cells while leaving the normal cells alone. To do this, it uses “checkpoints.” Immune checkpoints are molecules on certain immune cells that need to be activated (or inactivated) to start an immune response. Immune checkpoint inhibitors help the immune system recognize and combat cancer cells, and although these treatments have helped many patients and have prolonged lives, they can cause side effects such as colitis, an inflammatory reaction in the colon.  “Immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced colitis can limit the use of such life-sav...

Conspiracy theories tend to go viral on social media.  No surprise, then, that this would be so for COVID-19.  Support for the conspiracy theories comes, not from an evidence base, but mostly from people's instinct to think that the crisis created by the current pandemic is inexplicable.  From the title, you might expect an exposure of a major conspiracy to either cover-up of manufacture the COVID-19 virus.  There is no need for such theories.  The only conspiracy is that between our immune systems and the virus, and our trying to find a way to deal with the current crisis.    A pandemic was expected at some time because it is like such viruses that they will mutate and find ways to bypass our defences.   It is a constant game between viral agents and our immune systems.  Each, as it were, biologically trying to outwit the other.   So viral mutations are not rare.  A virus might also transfer across speci...

So much now depends on developing a vaccine against COVID-19, but how long could that take? The best estimate is that it would take at least twelve months. The best chance currently is one being developed in the United States. One way to generate a vaccine is to replicate the bit of the virus that causes the immune system to react, but without the virus' potential for taking over the cells of the body that host it. It is a bit like finding a key that fits a lock but doesn't allow the thief to enter. The estimate is that a vaccine for Covid-19 is at least 12 months away. A trial of a vaccine has begun in the United States. The group based in Seattle, Washington, had been working on a similar virus and so have been able to switch to Covid-19. They have reproduced a bit of RNA that acts as a template for a bit of the virus that would be recognised by the immune system.  It is an ingenious trick they are using, which is to use a bit of RNA to get cells of our bod...

E-cigarettes have effects similar to those seen in regular smokers and patients with chronic lung disease.  This is the conclusion of authors of a new report published online in the journal Thorax . E-cigarette vapour boosts the production of inflammatory chemicals and disables key protective cells in the lung that keep the air spaces clear of potentially harmful particles. Impaired lung defences The vapour impairs the activity of vital protective cells in the tiny air sacs of the lung,  the alveolar (air sac) macrophages. These macrophages are the 'big eaters',  or the scavengers,  of the respiratory tract. They are cells of the immune system whose role is to engulf debris, removing dust particles, bacteria, and allergens that get through the mechanical defences of the respiratory tract.  They are a crucial line of defence. Without them, our respiratory systems would become choked with detritus and pathogens, and our lungs would be more readily infecte...