They picked a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) that is made by intestinal cells in response to sugar and fat.
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"This is a fantastic example of how the response of cells changes due to a behavioral paradigm, " said theoretical neuroscientist Harel Shouval of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, who was not involved in the study but has worked previously with the researchers.
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Early increased growth is associated with the body making more insulin, which is thought to increase the likelihood of an autoimmune response to pancreatic islet cells.
The hope was that exposure to the genes would prompt an immune response in the body so that cells containing HIV virus would be recognised and destroyed.
Dr Djukanovic says they believe the vaccine stimulates a subset of immune cells which are able to curb this inappropriate response and restore the balance of the immune system.
Further, because they can be harvested from the patients themselves, there is no fear of any adverse immune response as there is with embryonic stem cells.
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It shuts off the neurotransmitters in response to leptin, a hormone released by fat cells.
One reason for the limited response rate may be that some patients' T cells do a poor job of recognizing melanoma.
Recently, it has been shown that germ-cells, too, are subject to epigenetic change, sometimes in response to environmental stimuli.
Researchers can only use dead cells or pieces of a cell and can only test for one response at a time, such as enzyme activity or the binding of a compound to a receptor.
In one trial of 290 patients who were given Glivec for at least six months, 56% enjoyed a powerful response: The drug destroyed most or all of the marrow cells with the defective gene.
Cells use cytokines to communicate with each other, and to regulate the immune response.
Even though the body's immune system cannot beat cancer, it still produces a response, creating antibodies targeted at proteins on the surface of cancer cells.
What scientists have been looking for are proteins which are found on the tumour cells - but not on every other cell of the body - which provoke some sort of immune response.
In particular, low-status individuals showed high levels of activity in genes associated with the production of various immune-related cells and chemical signalling factors, as well as those to do with inflammation (a general immune response that involves tissue swelling and increased immune-cell activity in the affected area).
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