Discovery Provides Hope For Transplant Recipients And AIDS Patients

Main Category: Immune System / Vaccines
Also Included In: Blood / Hematology;  HIV / AIDS;  Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 13 Jan 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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A researcher from the Université de Montréal and the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital has discovered the mechanism that prevents the regeneration of CD4+ T lymphocytes, which are white cells that are required for the proper functioning of the immune system.

Published in the prestigious journal Nature Immunology, this study by Dr. Martin Guimond is likely to have a major impact on patients who undergo intensive chemotherapy, receive bone marrow transplants or become infected with HIV.

Regeneration of the immune system

Chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants are effective methods for treating patients suffering from leukemia or other blood cancers. Unfortunately, due to the massive destruction of T lymphocytes, these kinds of treatments cause a major weakening of the immune system. Immunity can then take many years to regenerate and leave patients highly vulnerable to infections.

Dr. Guimond's study identified a negative regulation loop that restricts the ability of T lymphocytes to divide. "By acting on this regulation loop, we can create a homeostatic production of CD4+ T lymphocytes that will allow the immune system to regenerate," says Dr. Guimond, who recently joined the Research Centre of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.

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This release is available in French.

About Dr. Martin Guimond

A researcher in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Université de Montréal, Dr. Guimond is an expert in transplantation immunology at the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health (NCI/NIH). His main research fields are hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, graft-versus-host disease, as well as immune reconstitution in bone marrow transplant recipients. He was recruited to be part of the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont's Centre of Excellence for Cellular Therapy, which is scheduled to open in 2010. This new complex will give Montreal a word-class research centre with the best doctors and researchers who are working to unlock the major therapeutic potential of stem cell research, a field that represents the future of medicine.

On the Web:

About the Université de Montréal: http://www.umontreal.ca/.
About the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont: http://www.maisonneuve-rosemont.org/

Source: Pascal Mailhot
University of Montreal

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