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Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic, nonspecific inflammatory disorder characterized by symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, hematochezia, and urgency during defecation. While the primary site of involvement is the colon, UC can extend to encompass the entire rectum and colon. The causes and development mechanisms of UC are still not well understood; nonetheless, it is currently held that factors including environmental influences, genetic predispositions, intestinal mucosal integrity, gut microbiota composition, and immune dysregulation contribute to its development. Dysregulated immune responses are pivotal in the pathophysiology of UC, and these aberrant responses are considered key contributors to the disease onset. In patients with UC, immune cells become hyperactive and erroneously target normal intestinal tissue, resulting in inflammatory cascades and damage to the intestinal mucosa. The therapeutic strategies currently employed for UC include immunosuppressive agents such as aminosalicylates and corticosteroids. However, these treatments often prove costly and carry significant adverse effects — imposing a considerable burden on patients. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has attracted worldwide attention because of its multi-target approach, minimal side effects, cost-effectiveness, and favorable efficacy profiles. In this review, the ways in which TCM modulates inflammatory responses in the treatment of ulcerative colitis have been outlined. Research into TCM modalities for modulating inflammatory pathways in the treatment of UC, which has yielded promising advancements, including individual herbs, herbal formulations, and their derivatives, has been summarized. TCM has been utilized to treat UC and the immune system plays a key role in regulating intestinal homeostasis. It is imperative to facilitate large-scale evidence-based medical research and promote the clinical application of TCM in the management of UC.

We propose a new computational scheme of the Celada–Seiden model (CS_model) for the simulation of the Immune System response. This new approach is closer to the classical definition of cellular automata than the previous one. It has the advantage of achieving the same results obtained with the CS_model (IMMSIM) with a lower computational effort.

This study examined the effect of whole bee venom (BV) as a potential stimulant of the piglet immune system, on growth performance, blood parameters, plasma protein and immune globulin content of serum. Piglets (n = 97) received combinations of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mg/kg of parenterally administered BV on 4 occasions between birth and Day 30. In the apipuncture group (n = 31), piglets were acupunctured with the worker honeybee. Two acupoints, GV-1 (Jiao-chao) and GV-20 (Bai-hui), were selected for apipuncture. All piglets (n = 128) in the treatment groups were treated 4 times throughout the study period of 60 days. The control piglets received no treatments. Blood was taken via jugular venipuncture on Day 30 after birth. Body weight and survivability were measured, and changes in hematological values were analyzed. Both the BV injection group and apipuncture group increased body weight and survivability by 26.6% and 21.8%, and 7.9% and 6.7% respectively compared to the controls. The numbers of leukocytes, erythrocytes, lymphocytes and monocytes were not influenced by treatments. However, a potential clinical benefit of high dose therapy was seen in increased populations of leukocytes, lymphocytes and monocytes compared with either the apipuncture or control groups. Other blood parameters such as total protein and albumin were not affected by treatment. However, IgG levels were generally higher in treated groups than in the controls. These findings indicate that BV might be useful to stimulate immuno-competence in pig production, possibly via the primary bioactive components of melittin, phospholipase A₂ and apamin. The administration of BV, either via injection or acupuncture, did not make any differences in growth performance of young pigs. These results would be useful for further purification and characterization of immune boosting agents from BV.

Artemisia gmelinii Web. ex Stechm. (AG), a popular medicinal herb in Asia, has been used as a common food ingredient in Korea and is traditionally known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate whether AG relieves IBD, a classic chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. We identified 35 chemical compounds in AG ethanol extract using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry. In mice with DSS-induced IBD, AG administration attenuated the disease activity index and the serum and colonic levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. AG treatment decreased nuclear factor-$\kappa$B (NF-$\kappa$B) signaling, a key mediator of inflammation, in the mouse colons. Additionally, AG extract enhanced immune responses in lymphoid tissues such as spleen and Peyer’s patches. Thus, AG consumption potently ameliorated IBD symptoms and improved immune signaling in lymphoid tissues.

We discuss use of the generalized NK model to examine evolutionary dynamics within the immune system. We describe how randomness and diversity play key roles in the immune response and how their effects are captured by this hierarchical spin glass model. We discuss analytical aspects of the model as well as practical applications to design of the annual influenza vaccine. We discuss the subtle role that the glassy evolutionary dynamics plays in suppressing autoimmune disease.

Immunotherapy using dendritic cells (DCs) as antigen-presenting cells is widely used in laboratory and animal studies as a promising treatment for advanced prostate cancer. In this paper, the bifurcation analysis of a nonlinear model of prostate cancer with immunotherapy is performed. It is found that the model exhibits complex behaviors such as a saddle-node bifurcation, Hopf bifurcation, Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation and generalized Hopf bifurcation. Moreover, it is shown that the vaccine amount and T-cells killing efficiency of tumor cells have a significant effect on tumor cells, which provides new insights to improve treatment outcomes even for patients with a weak immune system.

Tumoral dynamics and antitumor immunotherapies are likely to be influenced by the modalities of interaction between tumor cells and immune system effectors, and by the inter-effectors interactions. Within the framework of the theory of competing populations, we study here the influence of the proliferation response of effectors to tumor burden, and of cooperation and/or competition between immune system effectors, by means of three inter-related bi-dimensional meta-models. After studying their null-clines, we study the location and the local stability of the equilibria. Then, we investigate the existence and, in some cases, the uniqueness of stable limit cycles. The condition for the global asymptotically stable eradication under constant or slightly variable periodic immunotherapy is given. Finally, implications of strong saturation in the effectors ability to kill tumor cells are discussed.

This study analyzes a model of hepatitis C with acute infectious, chronic infectious and the recovery or immune classes. Stability characters of disease-free and endemic proportionate equilibrium points are discussed. The role of immune system on the long-term survival of the susceptible population is derived. It has been shown that chronic infected populations persist whenever acute infected class persists and conversely. Lastly, the criterion for robustness of the system is established under stochastic perturbations. Numerical simulations are also performed to validate the results obtained.

Many illnesses are associated with an alteration of the immune system homeostasis due to a combination of factors, including exogenous bacterial insult, endogenous breakdown (e.g. development of a disease that results in immuno suppression), or an exogenous hit like surgery that simultaneously alters immune responsiveness and provides access to bacteria, or genetic disorder. We conjecture that, as a consequence of the co-evolution of the human immune system with the ecology of pathogens, the homeostasis of the immune system requires the influx of pathogens. This allows the immune system to keep the ever-present pathogens under control and to react and adjust fast to bursts of infections. We construct the simplest and most general system of rate equations which describes the dynamics of five compartments: healthy cells, altered cells, adaptive immune cells, innate immune cells, and pathogens. We study four regimes obtained with or without auto-immune disorder and with or without spontaneous proliferation of infected cells. For each of the four regimes, the phase space is always characterized by four (but not necessary identical) coexisting stationary structurally stable states. Over all four regimes among the 4 × 4 possibilities, there are only seven different states that are naturally described by the model: (i) strong healthy immune system, (ii) healthy organism with evanescent immune cells, (iii) chronic infections, (iv) strong infections, (v) cancer, (vi) critically ill state, and (vii) death. Our description provides a natural framework for describing the relationships and transitions between these seven states. The analysis of stability conditions demonstrates that these seven states depend on the balance between the robustness of the immune system and the influx of pathogens. In particular, the healthy state A is found to exist only under the influence of a sufficiently large pathogen flux, which suggests that health is not the absence of pathogens, but rather a strong ability to find balance by counteracting any pathogen attack.

The Kirschner-Panetta model describes the poblational competition between effector cells and tumor cells. We analize external changes in the parameters and mechanisms to obtain the decreasing of tumor cells. These variations were performed by three different ways: Oscillations, spikes with the natural frequency of the system, and spikes with Normal Distribution. It was observed that the amount of tumor cells decreases to zero if we change simultaneously the parameters properly.

Behçet's Disease (BD) is a multi-systemic, auto-inflammatory disorder that is characterized by recurrent episodes of inflammatory manifestations affecting skin, mucosa, eyes, blood vessels, joints and several other organs. BD is classified as a multifactorial disease with an important contribution of genetics. Genetic studies suggest that there is a strong association of BD with a Class I major histocompatibility complex antigen, named HLA-B*51, along with several other weaker associations with genes encoding proteins involved in inflammation. However, pathogenic mechanisms associated with these genetic variations and their interactions with the environment have not been elucidated yet. In this paper, we present a mathematical model for BD based on a dynamical systems perspective that captures especially the relapsing nature of the disease. We propose a disease progression mechanism and construct a model, in the form of coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which reveals the occurrence pattern of the disease in the population. According to our model, the disease has three distinct modes describing different phenotypes of people carrying HLA-B*51 tissue antigen, namely, the Healthy Carrier, the Potential Patient and the Active Patient. We herein present an exemplary mathematical model for BD, for the first time in the literature, that concisely captures the actions of many cell types together with genetic and environmental effects. The proposed model provides insight into this complex inflammatory disease which may lead to identification of new tools for its treatment and prevention.

Dual-phase evolution (DPE) and the network theory help to analyze prominent properties of the complex adaptive systems (CASs) such as emergence and self-organization that are caused due to the phase transitions. These transitions are observed because of the increase and decrease in the number of system components and their interactions. The immune system, which is one of the CASs, provides an adaptive response to the foreign molecules. Prior to this response, the immune system is present in the circulation state and during the response, it moves into the growth state, where the number of immune cells and their cell–cell contacts increase rapidly. The phase transitions from the circulation state to the growth state and then back to the circulation state cause the emergence and self-organization of the immune system, respectively. There is a need to understand these complex cellular dynamics during the immune response. In this paper, we have proposed an integrated model of DPE, network theory, and the immune system that has helped to understand and analyze the phases and properties of the immune system. Analysis of the growth phase network is provided and it is concluded that this network exhibits scale-free nature following power law for the degree distribution of nodes.

Immunotherapy and targeted therapy are alternative treatments to differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), which is usually treated with surgery and radioactive iodine. However, in advanced thyroid carcinomas, molecular alterations can cause a progressive loss of iodine sensitivity, thereby making cancer resistant to radioactive iodine-refractory (RAIR). In the treatment of cancer, tyrosine kinase inhibitors are administered to prevent the growth of cancer cells. One such inhibitor, lenvatinib, forms a targeted therapy for RAIR-DTC, while the immunotherapeutic pembrolizumab, a humanized antibody, prevents the binding of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) to the PD-1 receptor. As one of the first studies on treatments for thyroid cancer with mathematical model involving immunotherapy and targeted therapy, we developed an ordinary differential system and tested variables such as concentration of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab, total cancer cells, and number of immune cells (i.e., T cells and natural killer cells). Analyzing local and global stability and the simulated action of drugs in patients with RAIR-DTC, revealed the combined effect of the targeted therapy with pembrolizumab. The scenarios obtained favor the combined therapy as the best treatment option, given its unrivaled ability to boost the immune system’s rate of eliminating tumor cells.

Innate immune system cells activate in response to infection and trigger an acute inflammatory reaction to restore tissue homeostasis and promote subsequent tissue repair. Their activation and functions must be very well regulated to avoid tissue damage, organ dysfunction, or even death. In this work, a new set of mathematical models is presented to examine the dynamics of the innate immune system response to tissue damage and provide further understanding of the role of the innate immune system during the early stages of an inflammatory response. Different damaged cells production functions are proposed to represent the effect of secondary tissue damage by the innate immune system. The stability and bifurcation analyses of the model reveal that there is an important threshold parameter that can be controlled in order to avoid sustained chronic inflammation and secure a successful healing outcome. A set of numerical simulations is also performed to support the presented theoretical results and demonstrate the medical applicability of the new mathematical model.

This paper deals with a kinetic modelling of the cellular dynamics of tumors interacting with an active immune defence system. The analysis starts from a detailed modelling of the cellular interactions and follows with the derivation of evolution equations in a framework similar to the one of nonlinear statistical mechanics. A discussion about the qualitative properties of the model and on the possibility of its application in immunology is proposed in the last part of the paper.

Although the therapy of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) has progressed because of imatinib (IM) and other tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), the majority of patients still do not recover. To better regulate the remaining leukemic cell population, TKI combo therapy may be improved with a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms. We employed a mathematical system which incorporated the intricate phenomena of immune system to CML. We use a fractional derivative framework in this work to understand the dynamics of CML. Additionally, in our work, we concentrate on the qualitative characterization and dynamical behavior of CML interactions. For the proposed model, we examine the singularity and existence using fixed point theorems by Banach and Schaefer. We provide the necessary criteria for our suggested fractional model’s Ulam–Hyers stability. The influence of the factors on the dynamics of CML is highlighted by closely examining the solution paths by using a numerical scheme. To be more precise, we emphasized how the suggested system’s dynamic and chaotic behavior varied depending on the fractional order and other system factors. Policymakers are advised to consider the most crucial elements of CML dynamics. In order to inform policymakers and health authorities about the systems essential for control and treatment, it is crucial to investigate the dynamic characteristics of CML disease.

INDIA – Oral chlorea vaccine ‘offers protection for five years’.

JAPAN – Gene discovery leads way to more rice.

MALAYSIA – Top international hospitals to hold summit in Asia to address efficiency, patient safety issues.

SINGAPORE – Study led by NUS scientists provides new insights into cause of human neurodegenerative disease.

SINGAPORE – Recycled plastic proves effective in killing drug-resistant fungi.

SINGAPORE – Singapore scientists engineer human stem cells and move closer to mastering regenerative medicine.

SINGAPORE – A*STAR scientists discover novel hormone essential for heart development.

SINGAPORE – New discovery on how skin cells form “bridges” paves the way for advances in wound healing and tissue engineering.

AUSTRALIA – Pathogen study explores blocking effect of E. coli protein on immune system.

CANADA – Alzheimer's risk gene may begin to affect brains as early as childhood.

EUROPE – Simple blood test detects 85% of colorectal cancers and over 50% of polyps.

JERUSALEM – New compound for slowing the aging process can lead to novel treatments for brain diseases.

US – Older mice fed wolfberries show reduced risk for flu virus with vaccine diseases.

US – Molecular sensor detects early signs of multiple sclerosis, Gladstone study finds.

US – Scripps Research Institute scientists achieve detailed picture of key part of Hepatitis C virus.

US – Researchers discover promising new treatment to help people with spine injuries walk better.

US – Personalized vaccine for most lethal type of brain tumor shows promise.

AUSTRALIA – Origins of plague: Scientists reveal the cause of one of the most devastating pandemics in human history.

AUSTRALIA – Admedus releases interim phase I results for Herpes study.

CAMBODIA – Study tags cause of malaria drug resistance in Cambodia.

JAPAN – Discovery of mechanism by which sex hormone regulates aggressive behavior.

SINGAPORE – Singapore's first influenza vaccines demonstrates favorable immunogenicity and tolerability in clinical testing.

SINGAPORE – Scientists from Genome Institute of Singapore and Stanford University show RNA architecture expanding understanding of human genetics.

SINGAPORE – “Bio-Timer” that synchronizes growth.

SINGAPORE – Researchers make new discovery of protein as a promising target for treatment of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.

AFRICA – African project aims to stop rats in their tracks.

AFRICA – African monsoon project to benefit crops and healthcare.

CANADA – Cancer researchers discover pre-leukemic stem cell at root of AML relapse.

EUROPE – Understanding heart failure at the cellular level.

INDIA – Africa and India cultivate agricultural research ties.

UNITED STATES – Three major genes set feather hue in pigeons.

UNITED STATES – Mouse study shows gene therapy may be possible cure for Hurler syndrome.

UNITED STATES – The ultimate decoy: Scientists find protein that helps bacteria misdirect immune system.

AUSTRALIA – Chronic pain research delves into the brain

KOREA – STC life, Ltd. successfully treats stroke patients at Stem Cell Research Treatment Center

MALAYSIA – Indigenous people ‘at graver risk’ of neglected diseases

SINGAPORE – A*STAR scientists create stem cells from a drop of blood

THE PHILIPPINES – ‘Too many exotic species’ in Philippine greening plan

AFRICA – The parasite that escaped out of Africa

CANADA – Genome British Columbia researchers closing in on chlamydia vaccine

EUROPE – Teesside University pioneering life-saving research

EUROPE – Inactivated polio vaccines broadly available for the world's children in the drive toward polio eradication

EUROPE – Vitamin D deficiency may compromise immune function

EUROPE – Inflammation mobilizes tumor cells

NEPAL – Animal-borne parasites plague Nepal

UNITED STATES – Zebrafish discovery may shed light on human kidney function

UNITED STATES – Nanoparticles and magnetic fields train immune cells to fight cancer in mice

UNITED STATES – Building heart tissue that beats

UNITED STATES – Immunology researchers uncover pathways that direct immune system to turn ‘on’ or ‘off’

UNITED STATES – How diabetes drugs may work against cancer

UNITED STATES – Study reveals how a protein common in cancers jumps anti-tumor mechanisms

SINGAPORE – VIVA Foundation and NUS Launches $10 Million Cancer Research Centre for Childhood Leukaemia.

SINGAPORE – Discovery Paves the Way for Potential Genetics-Guided Precision Medicine for Paediatric Leukaemia Patients.

SINGAPORE – Partnership between Sony and Alder Hey Children's Hospital Drives Innovation in Children's Healthcare.

UNITED STATES – UGA Researchers Make Link between Genetics and Aging.

UNITED STATES – Latin Dancing may Have Health Benefits for Older Adults.

UNITED STATES – Interferon Not Beneficial for Most Stage III Melanoma.

UNITED STATES – Dissecting the Animal Diet, Past and Present.

UNITED STATES – Water Conservation Important to Many; Only Some Take Action.

UNITED KINGDOM – Innova Biosciences Introduces New LATEX One-Step Conjugation Kits.

UNITED KINGDOM – New Understanding of the Mechanism of Neurodegeneration Leads to a Novel Approach to Treatment for Alzheimer's Disease.

TAIWAN – Breakthrough in Homogeneous Antibody Development and a New Generation of Glycoarray Technology.

TAIWAN – Increasing Protein Synthesis by Leucine Ameliorates Synaptopathy Caused by Dementia, ALS and Autism.