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posted by takyon on Tuesday November 13 2018, @04:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the meningitis-blows dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Researchers find new pathway to regulate immune response, control diseases

Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have found a potential new pathway to regulate immune response and potentially control inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system such as meningitis and sepsis. "We need to know what turns on inflammatory response to bacterial infection to be able to modulate the process," said Subhrangsu Mandal, the UTA associate professor of chemistry who led the research. "If we can do so, we can control inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system that have been hard to treat up to now, such as sepsis and meningitis, as well as cancer and muscular dystrophy, which can also be seen a kind of inflammation," he added.

[...] The researchers have found that the long non-coding RNA molecule HOTAIR present in white blood cells has the capacity to signal these cells to activate immune response in the presence of bacteria. RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is present in all living cells. Its primary role is to carry instructions from DNA. "Knowing that HOTAIR has a role in the signaling pathway also means that we can use it as a biomarker for bacterial infection," he added. "Simple blood tests could indicate infection much more quickly, enabling better treatment for patients of rapidly-moving diseases such as septic shock and meningitis, which have been hard to treat up to now."

The researchers used the resources of UTA's North Texas Genome Center to demonstrate that noncoding RNA expression -- including HOTAIR -- is induced in white blood cells treated with lipopolysaccharide, which are molecules found on the outer membrane of bacterial cells. The research showed that HOTAIR gene was expressed alongside cytokines, which are excreted by cells as part of immune response, and inflammatory response genes such as iNOS. As a result, it is possible to conclude that HOTAIR is a key regulator for pathogen-induced cytokine expression, immune response and inflammation.

LncRNA HOTAIR regulates lipopolysaccharide-induced cytokine expression and inflammatory response in macrophages (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-33722-2) (DX)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 13 2018, @06:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 13 2018, @06:25PM (#761406)

    I submitted the Librem 5 story, which was the best of the day.