Shorter colds, milder flu may follow from newly revealed immune mechanism
Enlisted to help fight viral infections, immune cells called macrophages consume virus-infected cells to stop the spread of the disease in the body. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have uncovered how macrophages keep from succumbing to the infection themselves. Boosting this mechanism may be a way to speed recovery from respiratory infections.
The researchers found that a specific protein produced in the course of respiratory viral infections can serve to protect macrophages from an untimely death. Their report will appear in an upcoming issue of Nature Medicine and is available at the journal's website.
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