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Article: Immune system quirk could lead to effective tularemia vaccine.
- Article from:
- NewsRx Science
- Article date:
- November 15, 2009
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Immunologists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the have found a unique quirk in the way the immune system fends off bacteria called Francisella tularensis, which could lead to vaccines that are better able to prevent tularemia infection of the lungs. Their findings were published in the early, online version of Immunity.
F. tularensis is an intracellular pathogen that infects cells in the lungs called macrophages, explained senior author Shabaana A. Khader, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and immunology at the School of Medicine and an immunologist at Children's Hospital. Until now, ...