Articles by Delthia Ricks
Medical Xpress / The antibody with a secret: Scientists uncover IgA antibodies' ability to fight malaria
Antibodies have drawn a spotlight over the past year and a half as scientists and lay people alike have asked how long the infection-fighting proteins persist in the face of a formidable enemy—a pandemic virus that has been ...
Medical Xpress / Battle fatigue can drive T cells to exhaustion: Cancer and viruses are tough to fight
Just as it is for marathoners who've completed a 26-mile run, or shrubs that have gone without water in a heatwave—exhaustion is an unavoidable fact of life. Dogs get exhausted after herding sheep; birds turn in for the night ...
Medical Xpress / Is it possible to deliver a knockout punch to HIV?
With a global focus on strategies to curb expansion of a fast-moving coronavirus pandemic, the question again has arisen: What more is being done about HIV, a scourge that has lasted more than 40 years—is a cure finally in ...
Medical Xpress / Are we ready? Advances in CRISPR means the era of germline gene editing has arrived
Quick, accurate and easy-to-use, CRISPR-Cas9 has made genomic editing more efficient—but at the same time has made human germline editing much more feasible, erasing many of the ethical barriers erected to prevent scientists ...
Medical Xpress / How a protein named STING assaults viruses and cancer cells that invade us
The molecular world is full of surprises, and none more stunning than those occurring among the infinitesimal proteins that drive the activities guarding against viral infections and cancer.
Medical Xpress / Tweaking gene therapy: Scientists experimentally boost red blood cells to aid sickle cell and other hemoglobin diseases
A series of laboratory studies is underway in the United States to improve gene therapy worldwide for sickle cell disease, a complex and sometimes deadly heritable blood disorder that dramatically affects the structure and ...
Medical Xpress / 153 years after discovery of the immune system's dendritic cells, scientists uncover a new subset
When pathogens invade or tumor cells emerge, the immune system is alerted by danger signals that summon a key battalion of first responders, the unsung heroes of the immune system—a population of starfish-shaped sentinels ...
Medical Xpress / The global race for a T cell receptor that zeros in on—and annihilates—solid tumors
Immunobiologists in China have designed a synthetic T cell receptor for anticancer therapy, engineering the protein not only with a capability to seek and destroy solid tumors, but endowing this cancer fighting weapon with ...
Medical Xpress / The secret lives of T cell receptors and their role in the immune response
Canadian immunologists have identified a mechanism that promotes the activation of T cell receptors by altering how one of its components interacts with the cell membrane.
Medical Xpress / PET and CT scans provide keen views of lungs with active TB, and are better assessment tools than sputum tests
In clinical trials, a time-honored but old-school way to determine if TB is being knocked out by antibiotics involves having study participants cough up phlegm for a sputum culture, a test that can gauge whether the bacteria ...
Medical Xpress / On the hunt for a dengue antiviral: Scientists comb through scores of compounds to find a drug for 'breakbone fever'
The 'dengue belt' stretches around much of the planet crossing continents, cultures and time zones, a vast region linked by a common fate: a mosquito-borne disease that can be prevented for a select number of people with ...
Medical Xpress / Seafaring nightmare: Aerosol transmission drove SARS-CoV-2's spread aboard a star-crossed cruise ship
Among the many startling images of the early coronavirus pandemic were the luxury cruise ships that garnered the nickname "floating incubators."
Medical Xpress / How dark matter of the genome interacts with mitochondria—and affects the fate of cancer
If an opinion poll were taken for the most popular component of mammalian cells, the result probably would be a 50-50 split: Half of respondents would likely vote hands down for the nucleus and the other half for the mitochondria—a ...
Medical Xpress / New insights into B cells and why humans can produce trillions of disease-fighting antibodies
No story in biology is more intriguing than the one involving B cells and the intricate processes that result in antibody production—it's a story about mathematics, a tale of genetics and a saga of how vast armies of tiny ...
Medical Xpress / Opening a new door into kinder, gentler therapies for chronic inflammation
A naturally occurring antibody capable of stimulating the body's immune-suppressing regulatory T cells has been discovered by a team of Harvard scientists, a finding that may eventually open a new door into kinder, gentler ...
