307 articles from WEDNESDAY 12.5.2021

Scientists decode the 'language' of immune cells

Scientists have identified 'words' immune cells use to call up immune defense genes -- an important step toward understanding their language. The scientists also discovered that in an autoimmune disease, Sjögren's syndrome, two of these words are used incorrectly, activating the wrong genes and triggering the disease.

A delicate balance: Learning new ways that gut microbes educate the immune system

An immune system that mistakes our good gut bacteria for an enemy can cause a dangerous type of inflammation in the intestines called colitis. An immune system that looks the other way while gut microbes spill past their assigned borders is equally dangerous. Understanding how the immune system learns to make a brokered peace with its microbial residents, called the microbiota, is therefore an...

Backyard chickens, rabbits, soybeans can meet household protein demand

In 2020, stores sold out of garden seed, coops and rabbit cages. Meat shortages led many to wonder what to eat for protein when supply chains are disrupted and some people turned to gathering eggs, raising animals and growing their own food. A team assessed backyard protein sources: They looked at how a typical household with a typical backyard can raise chickens, rabbits or soybeans to meet its...

COVID-19 is not influenza, but it offers lessons on beating it, say researchers

A study of the 2020 influenza figures from Canada, the United States, Australia and Brazil shows that there is a clear relationship between COVID-mitigation measures such as hand-washing, masking and social distancing and the spread of the annual flu, researchers report. They write that these preventive measures all but eliminated the flu in countries where it can kill tens of thousands of people...