MOSCOW (AP) ? The head of a U.S. congressional delegation to Russia says it learned little about what could have been done to prevent the Boston Marathon bombings, despite the best efforts of actor Steven Seagal.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican who led the six-person delegation, said at a news conference Sunday that there was "nothing specific" that could have helped prevent April's bombings, but that the U.S. and Russia need to work more closely on joint security threats.
"Radical Islam is at our throat in the United States, and is at the throat of the Russian people," he said.
Rohrabacher described meetings with Russian parliament members and security officials over intelligence sharing as productive.
Some of the meetings were set up by Seagal, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in March.
LONDON (AP) ? Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have stepped out together at the premiere of zombie thriller "World War Z" ? Jolie's first public appearance since announcing last month that she had undergone a double mastectomy.
The couple walked a black, rather than red, carpet at the world premiere Sunday of the big-budget film, which stars Pitt as a United Nations employee battling to save the world.
The pair wore complementary black outfits as they signed autographs for fans in Leicester Square.
Jolie revealed last month that she had had her breasts removed after discovering she has an inherited genetic mutation that puts her at high risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
Jolie's mother Marcheline Bertrand died from ovarian cancer at 56, and the actress' aunt died of breast cancer last month.
A plea for more unified, more functional, more reliable, more compatible, and more competitive messaging on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Apple's iMessage will soon be the only remaining first-party single-platform messaging service in mobile. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) comes to iOS and Android this summer, Google's new Hangouts app has already launched for iOS and Android, and Microsoft's Skype runs on pretty much anything (I can almost hear my toaster ringing now..). Third party messengers, like FaceBook, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc. likewise run the gamut of platforms, and connect users no matter where they are, or what type of device they're using. Many if not most of them also include integrated video and audio messaging, something Apple supports -- in video-only form -- in the separate, and similarly single-plaftorm, FaceTime app. Moreover, while FaceTime is fairly reliable, the same can't be said for iMessage, which is missing, miss-ordering, miss-grouping, or otherwise messing up often enough to shatter faith in the service. All of this adds up to something I'd sorely like to see integrated, fixed, and perhaps even expanded in iOS 7.
Here's the hit-list:
Merge iMessage and FaceTime into a single app, or at the very least a transparent experience. Like BBM, Hangouts, and Skype, I'd love to be able to switch between text, audio, and video chat without having to switch back and forth between apps.
Add features to iMessage/FaceTime like persistent groups, the ability to block people, video conference calling, and maybe even screen sharing and VoIP. I don't think Apple needs all the features of BBM, especially the social ones, but parity with Skype and Hangouts would be nice.
Make iMessage "just work" better. Fix whatever causes messages to fail to appear, appear out of order, or switch to SMS/MMS without notification. Communications requires trust. iMessage needs that trust.
Consider taking iMessage cross-platform. It's not nearly as far-fetched as Apple licensing iOS or OS X, and it's broadly inline with the original stated intent for FaceTime.
These are all non-trivial requests.
Base feature parity with the competition would, of course, make iMessage/FaceTime competitive.
Merging the proprietary iMessage with the standards-based FaceTime would certainly be a huge challenge, but likely necessary to handle all the varied types of communication. Where sometimes separate apps for separate purposes makes more sense, other times a bigger-picture app enabled higher-level functionality. Both iMessage and FaceTime currently employ phone numbers as the connection mechanism on iPhone, and Apple IDs as the connection mechanism across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac. So, to end users like us, the way we establish contact wouldn't change. It would just become unified.
Base feature parity with the competition would, of course, make iMessage/FaceTime competitive. From conference calling to blocking, there are obvious holes in Apple's current offering that seem like they'd have already been filled but for prioritization of (limited) resources. Now that messaging is becoming important again, perhaps it'll become more of a priority? Of the additional features, Voice over IP (VoIP) would be trickiest, as it threatens to expand carrier disintermediation even further. Google and BlackBerry have already done a lot to provide carrier-free communications, as has Microsoft with their Skype acquisition, but everything has always been more difficult for Apple given the uniformity and mainstream popularity of the iPhone.
Tim Cook probably isn't any more amused by missing or messed up iMessages than we are.
Fixing iMessages' reliability will also no doubt be a challenge. If it were simple or easy at any level, Apple would have done it already. (Tim Cook probably isn't any more amused by missing or messed up iMessages than we are.) Other vendors have shown that it's possible to have dependable messaging, however, so it's something Apple has to figure out.
Taking iMessage/FaceTime cross-platform is harder to see. Apple probably doesn't want to port iMessage to Android, much less Windows Phone or BlackBerry 10. While the FaceTime, which could be released as a standard and implemented by other people on those other platforms, iMessage is all Apple. They'd have to do the heavy lifting themselves, add a parallel, standards-based component for others to tie into, or open their currently closed technology. None of those seem likely, though allowing fall back to XMPP the way iMessage can already fall back to SMS/MMS for compatibility could interesting.
Like email, messaging should go wherever our friends are, or its usefulness is compromised.
And that's a pity, because as much as I love proprietary hardware and interfaces, and think strong opinions make for great experiences, I want my communications protocols to be open. What's on my phone can be all Apple, what connects me to my friends and the world I'd prefer to be standards-based and interchangeable. Like email, messaging should go wherever our friends are, or its usefulness is compromised.
(iMessage/FaceTime integration into future Apple TV products is an interesting idea as well, especially for connecting families via the living room and companies via the conference room, but we don't have future Apple TVs yet, and current ones can already put FaceTime on the big screen via AirPlay.)
The background
iMessage was introduced in iOS 5 as a way to provide a BBM-like service for iPhone users, and neatly roshambo the carriers' right in their exorbitant SMS/MMS fees at the same time. Where Apple's iChat, the messaging service available at the time on the Mac, piggy-backed on AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), iMessage uses Apple's own Push Notification Services (PNS).
On the iPhone, iMessage intermingles seemlessly with SMS/MMS. Apple including both in the same app made for immediate, immense adoption. If you're sending a message to another Apple user, it simply goes over iMessage. If you're sending to someone on a non-Apple device, it reverts to SMS/MMS to maintain compatibility. However, it's not always elegant. Sometimes iMessage will fail and you'll have to resend, or optionally resend as SMS/MMS. Other times, iMessage will fail and your message will automatically be sent as SMS/MMS. Which, if you're in the midst of convering with someone, could mean instant, potentially rage-inducing texting charges. And you can't block people from iMessaging you when you want or need to.
iMessage and FaceTime offer incredible integration with SMS/MMS and standard calling on the iPhone, but don't offer the unified experience or more robust feature sets of competing services.
In addition to text messages, iMessage provides delivered and optional read receipts, like BBM. It can also handle images, video, contacts, location, audio, and a few other types of files. While text, images, and videos can be added from within the iOS Messages app, the other forms of messages can only be attached from within apps specific to those file types, like Contacts, Maps, Voice Memo, etc. That's fine if you're in an app and want to share as a one-off, but irksome if you're engaged in a conversation and simply want to drop in an attachment as part of it.
Much to their credit, Apple did move iMessage to the Mac. Once you get used to messaging that works on mobile and desktop, it's tough to even consider using anything else. It's one of Skype's biggest advantages, even though their Mac and Windows client can be as horrible an experience as it is useful. Lack of a native Mac and Windows client is also one of the biggest drawbacks to BBM, and to Hangouts whose web experience has gotten more powerful but far less elegant as of late. Facebook is likewise locked to the browser (and devoid of a video calling option), and many other alternatives are still mobile-only.
BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is arguably best in class, with a range of personal and social communication features that are set to start going cross-platform this summer.
The Messages app on the Mac is more of an iChat/Messages hybrid -- or Frankenstein -- still supporting AIM, XMPP, and Yahoo! accounts as well. Those accounts retain some of the old iChat features as well, including integrated audio and video chat and screen sharing. Gone, however, are features like video conference calling, iChat theater file sharing, and the cute if gimmicky backdrops.
And, of course, none of those legacy iChat features work with iMessage -- for video chat with an Apple account, you have to launch FaceTime on OS X just like on iOS.
Skype, now owned by Microsoft, offers a robust range of features from basic messaging to full on VoIP and video conferencing.
FaceTime arrived with iOS 4 and, like iMessage, enjoys a huge advantage on the iPhone by being tied right into the default calling app, in this case Phone. That makes switching from a traditional cellular voice call to FaceTime incredibly easy (though switching back is not currently possible, easily or at all). FaceTime isn't based on a proprietary protocol like iMessage, but on standards-based ones like H.264, AAC, SIP, STUN, TURN, ICE, and RTP.
When it was announced, Steve Jobs said Apple would be, in return, offering the FaceTime implementation as a standard. That has not yet come to pass, though Apple has been sued for patent-infringement over elements of FaceTime, which may have necessitated a change in plans. Open or closed, FaceTime remains video-only, though you can escape to audio if you really want to. It has also remained relatively stagnant, unlocking 3G/LTE transmission, but not adding (back) any features like video conference calling, screen sharing, or file sharing either.
FaceTime has recently added VoIP calls in the US and Canada, complementing its existing text service.
Contrast this to the admittedly much more mature, much more central-to-the-platform, BBM, which offers not only text, image, video, and the other standard attachment types, along with integrated video and audio chat, and screen-sharing, but also social components like shared galleries, calendars, and task lists, and even Twitter-like, one-to-many channels now. You can also easily block people from messaging you, which can be really important if your contact information gets in the wrong hands. And while BBM has suffered more than its fair share of outages, like any internet service, when it works, it works reliably enough to have put the "crack" in the "crackberry" experience.
Likewise, Skype and Hangouts are both currently offering more feature-rich, more integrated, and more reliable messaging services. (Though Google has entangled Hangouts in their larger social identity network.)
The newly expanded Google Hangouts offers persistent group chats to large scale group video calling as well.
The bottom line
iMessage and FaceTime today do pretty much what they did at launch. While it's hard to say they've been neglected, Apple hasn't prioritized them to the same degree their competition has been prioritizing Google Hangouts, FaceBook Messenger, or BlackBerry Messenger of late. What features Apple has been adding have been centered more around notifications and the management thereof, which are important but secondary to the core feature set. You can't be notified about something you can't do.
On the iPhone, the phone part, like the messaging part, has always been just another app. However, communications is still one of the most important jobs the iPhone has, and one that makes the iPad and Mac far more useful as well. Apple doesn't need to be best-in-class when it comes to messaging -- though that might well be on their, likely very long, to-do list -- but it would greatly behoove them, and us, if they were to prioritize being more competitive.
I'd love to see Apple take a step in that direction with iOS 7. Then I can start asking for a unified messaging system, like webOS Synergy or the BlackBerry 10 Hub, for iOS 8...
NBC affiliate KFOR reports from Oklahoma where in some areas trees and power lines are down with wind reaching 70 to 80 miles per hour.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
Friday's tornado emergency sent a chill through Oklahoma City and its environs, in large part because it came less than two weeks after a powerful twister drove through the same area. The attention given to the weather pummeling America's midsection plays off the devastation left behind on May 20 in Moore, Okla.?? and that contributes to the perception that this year's storm season has been far worse than usual.
It hasn't been, says Cliff Mass, a weather researcher at the University of Washington.
He noted that the season had an unusually quiet start, weather-wise. "We're catching up a little bit," he told NBC News on Friday. "There's no big-picture association with global warming, or anything else. ... It's just that people are very sensitized to this after Moore."
The month of May is prime time for storm activity in Texas and Oklahoma, he said. "Then the tornado frequency moves northward as you get into the latter part of the season," Mass said.
If there's any consolation for Oklahomans suffering through yet another threat to lives and property, it's the fact that meteorologists have increased their capability to track and anticipate storms over the past decade. "It's just amazing to watch the technology being thrown at it," Mass said.
The answers to some of the scientific questions surrounding twisters are clearer today than they've ever been ? but other questions still pose mysteries:?
Friday's storm reportedly spawned a "multiple-vortex tornado." What's that?
Multiple-vortex tornadoes rank among the most violent and damaging storms. In such a case, the center of the tornado's wind funnel spawns two to seven smaller twisters, or subvortices. These mini-twisters circulate around the edge of the storm cloud at speeds that can range up to 100 mph faster than the winds in the main funnel. The subvortices typically last less than a minute.
The storm that flattened Joplin, Mo., in 2011 had multiple vortices, as did a powerful storm that swept over Indiana last year. (This picture of the Indiana storm actually shows the subvortices.) The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center says multi-vortex tornadoes are probably behind most reports of multiple tornadoes hitting at once.
Purdue University tornado researcher Ernest Agee says one characteristic of a multi-vortex storm is a pattern of asymmetric damage. One side of a structure might look relatively untouched, while the other side could be completely destroyed. "Those individual vortexes are very destructive," he said.?
Why is Tornado Alley more prone to deadly twisters?
The classic explanation has focused on Tornado Alley's geography: The Rocky Mountains tend to impede the eastward flow of moist air, while the Great Plains allow frigid air to stream southward from Canada and meet up with warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico. However,?the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center says?this is a "gross oversimplification" when it comes to explaining the origin of tornadoes.
Mass cites an array of factors?that include strong vertical instability and a large amount of wind shear during the spring. "Everything comes together to make this the spot for tornadoes," he said.
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service provided this preliminary damage path for the tornado that swept through the region around El Reno, Okla., on Friday.
"Tornado Alley" generally refers to the region centered in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and points north, where tornadoes are most frequent ??but?multiple?studies?indicate that the deadliest twisters occur to the east, in a region that's come to be known as?"Dixie Alley."?The reasons for that have to do with geography and demographics as well as meteorology in the southeastern United States: Storms tend to move?faster, and they're more likely to strike at night. There are more trees and other obstructions to raise havoc. Population densities are generally higher, and the region has many manufactured homes that lack basements in which to take shelter.
Are tornadoes a uniquely American phenomenon?
The United States has the highest incidence of tornadoes, with an average of more than 1,000 every year, according to the?National Climatic Data Center. But other regions of the world have twisters as well. Canada is No. 2 with about 100 per year, followed by northern Europe, western Asia, Bangladesh, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, South Africa and Argentina. Britain has more tornadoes than any other country, relative to its land area. "Fortunately, most UK tornadoes are relatively weak," the?data center?says.
Will climate change make tornadoes worse? More frequent?
"The short answer is, we have no idea," said?Michael Wehner, a climate researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For years, Wehner has been studying the climate models for extreme weather, and he's a lead author for the next report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as the federal government's latest?national assessment on climate change.
One problem is that the observational record for tornadoes has not been uniform over time. "It has a bias to it, because more people are living where tornadoes occur, and more people are out looking for them," Wehner said. That contributes to the perception that tornadoes are happening more frequently than they used to.
The other big problem is that current climate models don't have the resolution that's needed to simulate the localized, violent activity of a tornado. Currently, global models are built up from atmospheric interactions on a scale of 100 kilometers (62 miles). Improvements in computer power could soon bring that down to a scale of 25 kilometers (16 miles). That should make it possible for scientists to simulate the weather phenomena that give rise to tornadoes, but not the tornadoes themselves, Wehner said.
What about other storms?
When it comes to rainstorms, researchers say there's a clearer link to climate change. "The metric that I like to look at is the daily amount of rain for a storm that happens once every 20 years," he said. "That storm, in a much warmer world, would happen more frequently." For example, if the world follows a "business-as-usual" scenario, he projects that the average temperature would rise 11 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) by the end of the century, and that a once-in-20-years rainstorm?would come around every five to 10 years on average.
That doesn't necessarily mean tornadoes would be more frequent, however. In fact, the current projection calls for wetter spring weather in the northern U.S., and drier weather in the Southwest ? with Tornado Alley right in the middle. "There's some evidence that there might not be a change" in the character of a tornado season, Wehner observed.
Tom Pennington / Getty Images
Images document the devastation left behind in Oklahoma after the May 20 tornado.
More about tornado science:
This report incorporates information from a May 20 posting on the science of tornadoes?and a Cosmic Log item about multiple-vortex tornadoes from March 2, 2012.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with him by "liking" the NBC News Science?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding him to your?Google+ circles.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A high-level U.N. panel recommended an ambitious roadmap Thursday to tackle the world's major challenges, from climate change to equality for women, with a key goal of ending extreme poverty everywhere by 2030.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed the panel last year to recommend a new development agenda after the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, expire in 2015. World leaders agreed in 2000 on anti-poverty goals including cutting extreme poverty by half, halting the HIV/AIDS pandemic and increasing the number of people with access to clean water and sanitation.
The extreme poverty and clean water goals have been met, but many other of the goals probably won't be achieved.
The 27-member U.N. panel expressed "deep respect" for the MDGs, saying: "The 13 years since the millennium have seen the fastest reduction in poverty in human history: there are half a billion fewer people living below an international poverty line of $1.25 a day. Child death rates have fallen by more than 30 percent, with about three million children's lives saved each year compared to 2000. Deaths from malaria have fallen by one quarter."
The panel proposed a major expansion of the MDGs ? with a special focus on the more than one billion people still living on less than $1.25 a day ? to tackle the causes of poverty such as weak government institutions, corruption, a lack of basic freedoms, conflict and hunger.
The panel's report will kick-start two years of discussions and negotiations on what the development agenda after 2015 should be
The co-chairs, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and British Prime Minister David Cameron, called it a "bold and practical" proposal with 12 goals and 54 targets.
"Our vision and our responsibility are to end extreme poverty in all its forms in the context of sustainable development and to have in place the building blocks of sustained prosperity for all," the panel said.
The recommended goals include ensuring food security, sustainable energy and sustainable natural resources management; creating jobs and promoting economic growth and good governance; achieving gender equality and ensuring stable and peaceful societies. Targets include promoting free speech and the rule of law, ending child marriage, protecting property rights, encouraging entrepreneurship and ensuring that every child has at least a primary school education.
Mexico's former foreign relations secretary Patricia Espinoza, a panel member, said the vision for 2030 won't be achieved "if the world continues to do business like we have been doing for the last decades."
U.S. panelist John Podesta, who served as President Bill Clinton's chief of staff and co-chaired President Barack Obama's transition team, told a press conference that one of the MDGs' failings was that it didn't include proposals to promote the peace and security that world leaders talked about in 2000.
The panel rectifies this by recommending "building blocks" to peace and stability, but Podesta said "more than 40 percent of the extreme poor now live in conflict and conflict-affected states, so until we tackle that problem with real vigor, I think ... it's hard to finish the job."
Patrick Stewart told the Comicpalooza audience that his mother was blamed for the abuse rained on her by his father.
On television, he was the almost unflappable Captain Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." But Patrick Stewart was raised in a poor household with an abusive father, and the experience gave him the fire to work for such causes once he had the fame to make himself heard.
Stewart appeared at Comicpalooza in Texas over the Memorial Day weekend, and while there, answered questions from audience members.
Heather Skye, who blogs at Lemon Sweetie, thanked Stewart for a speech he gave at an Amnesty International event about domestic violence, saying that she had come through a similar event and appreciated his speaking out, and asked him about what non-acting work he's the most proud of.
And then things got personal. Stewart, who has spoken about his father's abuse before, referenced his own childhood in 1940s England. "The work that I do in campaigns about violence towards women, particularly domestic violence, grew out of my own childhood experience," he said.
He discussed the specific groups he works with, and went on to say, "I do what I do in my mother's name, because I couldn't help her then. Now I can."
Stewart said his father, a World War II veteran, was then said to suffer from severe shellshock, but would today be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He works with both the veterans' mental-health charity Combat Stress as well as the domestic-violence shelter Refuge, saying he does so because of both of his parents.
"As a child, I heard in my home doctors and ambulance men say, 'Mrs. Stewart, you must have done something to provoke him,'" Stewart said to Skye and the crowd. "'Mrs. Stewart, it takes two to make an argument.' Wrong! WRONG! My mother did nothing to provoke that, and even if she had, violence is never ever a choice that a man should make. Ever!"
The crowd gave Stewart a standing ovation, and shortly after, he walked into the crowd and hugged Skye. She wrote on her blog, "He told me 'You never have to go through that again, you?re safe now.' I couldn?t stop thanking him. His embrace was so warm and genuine. It was two people, two strangers, supporting and giving love. And when we pulled away he looked (straight) in my eyes, like he was promising that. He told me to take care. And I will."
Live and let diePublic release date: 31-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dr. Jan Grabowski jan.grabowski@helmholtz-hzi.de 49-531-618-11407 Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
Protein prevents immune cell suicide
This news release is available in German.
A protein called c-FLIP-R is critical to immune cell survival: If this molecule is missing, the cells kill themselves and are thus no longer able to perform their job fighting off invaders. Now, scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) Braunschweig and at the Otto von Guericke University (OvGU) Magdeburg have published their findings in the renowned European Journal of Immunology.
Apoptosis, programmed cell death, is a kind of cellular suicide program. If something triggers it, the cells perish in a controlled manner. A certain type of white blood cell called a lymphocyte commits suicide by apoptosis, which is one way for the body to effectively shut down an immune response once a pathogen has been successfully fought off. To make sure this doesn't happen until after the job is done, apoptosis is a tightly regulated process. If this regulation is lost, potential consequences include autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, even different forms of cancer.
The protein c-FLIP figures prominently into how the body regulates this process. The protein exists as three different versions, or isoforms. While the roles of c-FLIP-L and c-FLIP-S isoforms are well established, until now relatively little has been known about the role of the c-FLIP-R isoform. Which is why Prof. Ingo Schmitz and the Braunschweig team of researchers decided to take a closer look at this particular isoform. What they found is that it confers protection on immune cells against the apoptosis program. "If c-FLIP-R is activated, lymphocytes are apoptosis-resistant," says the head of the HZI's Systems-oriented Immunology and Inflammation Research work group, who also teaches at the OvGU. "Apoptosis can take place only in the protein's absence."
Traditionally, insights like these are based on research on mice and have yet to be confirmed in humans. In this case, however, the exact opposite holds true: Schmitz and his team initially made their observations on human blood cells. Next, to test these findings at the organismal level, the researchers examined a certain strain of mice that were making c-FLIP in all of their blood cells. The result: "Although the animals' immune system was unchanged, c-FLIP prevents their white blood cells from undergoing apoptosis," explains immunologist Prof. Dunja Bruder, who also teaches in Magdeburg.
As a result, the mice are less susceptible to Listeria infections. The bacterium, which also infects humans, is transmitted via contaminated foods. "The mice have a lower bacterial count and a lesser extent of organ damage than is normally the case with Listeria," says Bruder. Consistently high levels of c-FLIP, however, would permanently disable apoptosis in activated lymphocytes and could trigger different autoimmune diseases. The scientists are hoping to conduct further, more in-depth research on this particular topic.
Still, for Ingo Schmitz, there is one obvious potential medical benefit to the discovery: "If we were able to simply turn on c-FLIP-R, this would help strengthen the immune system." Helping the body heal itself if you will. A highly promising approach that could prove important to pretty much every single disease. Schmitz is already working on mapping out the search for candidate active substances.
###
Original publication:
Tanja Telieps, Frida Ewald, Marcus Gereke, Michaela Annemann, Yvonne Rauter, Marc Schuster, Nana Ueffing, Dorthe von Smolinski, Achim D. Gruber, Dunja Bruder, Ingo Schmitz
c-FLIP-R modulates cell death induction upon T-cell activation and infection
European Journal of Immunology, 2013, DOI: 10.1002/eji.201242819
The Systems-oriented Immunology and Inflammation Research work group studies the molecular processes that sensitize immune cells to the body's own tissues. The cellular suicide program apop-tosis figures prominently into this research.
The HZI's Immune regulation work group studies the balance of the immune system in extreme situations. This includes, among others, simultaneous infection with different kinds of pathogens and the misguided attack of the body's own parts.
The Helmholtz Center for Infection Research:
Scientists at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) are engaged in the study of different mechanisms of infection and of the body's response to infection. Helping to improve the scientific community's understanding of a given bacterium's or virus' pathogenicity is key to developing effective new treatments and vaccines.
http://www.helmholtz-hzi.de
The Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg:
One of the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg Medical Faculty's research emphases is "Immunology including the molecular medicine of inflammation" with the goal of developing new therapeutic approaches and their delivery to the patient.
http://www.uni-magdeburg.de
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Live and let diePublic release date: 31-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dr. Jan Grabowski jan.grabowski@helmholtz-hzi.de 49-531-618-11407 Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
Protein prevents immune cell suicide
This news release is available in German.
A protein called c-FLIP-R is critical to immune cell survival: If this molecule is missing, the cells kill themselves and are thus no longer able to perform their job fighting off invaders. Now, scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) Braunschweig and at the Otto von Guericke University (OvGU) Magdeburg have published their findings in the renowned European Journal of Immunology.
Apoptosis, programmed cell death, is a kind of cellular suicide program. If something triggers it, the cells perish in a controlled manner. A certain type of white blood cell called a lymphocyte commits suicide by apoptosis, which is one way for the body to effectively shut down an immune response once a pathogen has been successfully fought off. To make sure this doesn't happen until after the job is done, apoptosis is a tightly regulated process. If this regulation is lost, potential consequences include autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, even different forms of cancer.
The protein c-FLIP figures prominently into how the body regulates this process. The protein exists as three different versions, or isoforms. While the roles of c-FLIP-L and c-FLIP-S isoforms are well established, until now relatively little has been known about the role of the c-FLIP-R isoform. Which is why Prof. Ingo Schmitz and the Braunschweig team of researchers decided to take a closer look at this particular isoform. What they found is that it confers protection on immune cells against the apoptosis program. "If c-FLIP-R is activated, lymphocytes are apoptosis-resistant," says the head of the HZI's Systems-oriented Immunology and Inflammation Research work group, who also teaches at the OvGU. "Apoptosis can take place only in the protein's absence."
Traditionally, insights like these are based on research on mice and have yet to be confirmed in humans. In this case, however, the exact opposite holds true: Schmitz and his team initially made their observations on human blood cells. Next, to test these findings at the organismal level, the researchers examined a certain strain of mice that were making c-FLIP in all of their blood cells. The result: "Although the animals' immune system was unchanged, c-FLIP prevents their white blood cells from undergoing apoptosis," explains immunologist Prof. Dunja Bruder, who also teaches in Magdeburg.
As a result, the mice are less susceptible to Listeria infections. The bacterium, which also infects humans, is transmitted via contaminated foods. "The mice have a lower bacterial count and a lesser extent of organ damage than is normally the case with Listeria," says Bruder. Consistently high levels of c-FLIP, however, would permanently disable apoptosis in activated lymphocytes and could trigger different autoimmune diseases. The scientists are hoping to conduct further, more in-depth research on this particular topic.
Still, for Ingo Schmitz, there is one obvious potential medical benefit to the discovery: "If we were able to simply turn on c-FLIP-R, this would help strengthen the immune system." Helping the body heal itself if you will. A highly promising approach that could prove important to pretty much every single disease. Schmitz is already working on mapping out the search for candidate active substances.
###
Original publication:
Tanja Telieps, Frida Ewald, Marcus Gereke, Michaela Annemann, Yvonne Rauter, Marc Schuster, Nana Ueffing, Dorthe von Smolinski, Achim D. Gruber, Dunja Bruder, Ingo Schmitz
c-FLIP-R modulates cell death induction upon T-cell activation and infection
European Journal of Immunology, 2013, DOI: 10.1002/eji.201242819
The Systems-oriented Immunology and Inflammation Research work group studies the molecular processes that sensitize immune cells to the body's own tissues. The cellular suicide program apop-tosis figures prominently into this research.
The HZI's Immune regulation work group studies the balance of the immune system in extreme situations. This includes, among others, simultaneous infection with different kinds of pathogens and the misguided attack of the body's own parts.
The Helmholtz Center for Infection Research:
Scientists at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) are engaged in the study of different mechanisms of infection and of the body's response to infection. Helping to improve the scientific community's understanding of a given bacterium's or virus' pathogenicity is key to developing effective new treatments and vaccines.
http://www.helmholtz-hzi.de
The Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg:
One of the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg Medical Faculty's research emphases is "Immunology including the molecular medicine of inflammation" with the goal of developing new therapeutic approaches and their delivery to the patient.
http://www.uni-magdeburg.de
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Public release date: 31-May-2013
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