Innate immunity constitutes the body’s first line of defence against invading pathogens. This ancient, evolutionarily conserved system is activated within minutes of encountering foreign agents, ...

Innate lymphoid cells, which curiously behave like T cells even though they don’t recognize specific antigens, show promise as a potential cancer therapeutic. In the years that followed, other groups ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American The very first line of defence against any ...

The immune system has two separate responses, which are orchestrated to optimize protection against pathogens. The first response is known as innate immunity. This first wave of protection provides ...

Cancer immunotherapies, including cancer vaccines, harness and amplify the immune system’s natural ability to detect and attack cancer cells. In this illustration, immune T cells (pink) attach to a ...

Unlike transient innate immune activation, trained immunity is characterized by long-lasting but reversible functional reprogramming of monocytes, macrophages, natural killer (NK) cells, and ...

SARS-CoV-2 has an enzyme that can counteract a cell's innate defense mechanism against viruses, explaining why it is more infectious than the previous SARS and MERS-causing viruses. The discovery may ...

Dozens of new discoveries reveal that defenses evolved by bacteria and viruses billions of years ago still define our own ...

Research reveals that T cells from the adaptive immune system can manipulate the memory of innate immune cells. Previously, it was believed that the memory of innate immune cells operated ...

When a transplanted organ arrives, it’s like a controlled burn that risks becoming a wildfire. The body’s innate immune system senses damage signals, like heat shock proteins (HSP70), and sounds the ...

Secondary infections caused by bacteria or viruses during hospital care remain a long-standing global challenge, despite advances in modern medicine. In particular, mixed bacterial–viral infections in ...