Lara C. Pullen, PhD, is a medical writer with a PhD in microbiology/immunology from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. As a medical writer she has covered topics as diverse as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and autism. Her favorite subject, however, is the role of the immune system in health and disease. Dr. Pullen is also the mother of three children, the youngest of whom has Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS). She is an active member of the PWS community and a thought leader on the importance of the ketogenic diet for this patient population.
New research has examined the autonomic parameters of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) using the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire to place patients on a disease spectrum. Researchers found different groups of CFS patients had different levels of autonomic dysfunction and cognitive impairment, suggesting that different CFS criteria may diagnose a spectrum of disease severities and different CFS phenotypes…
A recent study suggests novel markers of dry eye disease can be found in the lacrimal fluid and tear fluid of patients. Researchers analyzed the proteins in these fluids and found immune response-related proteins are upregulated at the protein level in lacrimal fluid of patients with dry eye disease and may be an important biomarker…
New research has found the sirtuin family of proteins may be a positive regulator of bone mass. In the study, pharmacological activation of SIRT1 in mice resulted in increased bone mass, suggesting the pharmacological activation of SIRT1 may protect against osteoporosis…
Mast cells may become a therapeutic target for low back pain, according to new research. Researchers found mast cells can infiltrate intervertebral disc cells and play a role in their degeneration. Specifically, mast cells and the cytokine, IL-6, were both more likely to be found in painful intervertebral discs surgically removed from patients than in control discs…
Metabolic control of T cell locomotion provides new opportunities to interfere with T cell invasion into specific tissue sites, according to new research…
New research examines the role of factor Xa in the pathology of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and systemic lupus erythematosus-associated APS. Researchers found that FXa stimulation was mediated by protease-activated receptors and enhanced by IgG from FXa reactive antibody positive patients, which may make IgG FXa reactivity a novel biomarker for future research…
CHICAGO—During the 2017 annual Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) meeting, a session focused on precision immunology and its advances. Precision immunology describes the identification of host, immune system and tumor factors that can be used to select an immunotherapy approach. Thus, the first step in precision immunology is to identify soluble factors, immune cell…
CHICAGO—Joseph Breen, PhD, program officer at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., opened the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) session at the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) 2017 meeting by asking presenters to describe the current state of the science to the key immunology stakeholders gathered in the room. The hope was that…
CHICAGO—“Why do so many drugs fail in clinical trials?” asked Michael Brenner, MD, chief of rheumatology, immunology and allergy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. This question, previously posed by Francis Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health, prompted a discussion among scientists and stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry. The conversation…
A study in mice provides insight into the maturation of the self-reactive B cell response, contextualizing the epitope spreading observed in autoimmune disease. Researchers found that clonal expansion of wild type B cells in autoreactive germinal centers appeared to be at the heart of epitope spreading and the consequent autoimmune response…