LIAI scientists identify immune system trigger for fighting Lyme disease
...articularly exciting because it is one of the few glycolipids found to naturally induce an immune response from the body's NK T cells, which are prized for their ability to initiate a fast and vigorous attack against infection. Scientists are hopeful that this glycolipid can be used to create a vaccine against...Lung surfactant: Host defense/surface tension, and linking innate/adaptive immune systems
...ectins bind via their lectin domains to sugars and glycolipids on pathogens and opsonize them for uptake by phagocytes. The collectins also regulate the production of inflammatory mediators and reactive species. "Recent studies from our laboratory as well as other laboratories show that the collectins also pla......was either zero or dramatically reduced binding of glycolipids to Bt toxin. They concluded that the defective sugar structure of the glycolipid receptor in each of the mutants prevents Bt from binding. Other members of the research team, coauthors Stuart Haslam and Anne Dell, biologists at Imperial College Lond...