Study Finds Potential Way to Make an AIDS Vaccine Sep 5, 2009
It may also be possible to use such antibodies as therapy themselves -- such as the gamma globulin used for hepatitis virus. But the eventual goal, Berkley said, is a vaccine that produces antibodies that could stop the virus from ever infecting a person in the first place. (MEDLINEplus)
The Medicare-Isn't-Government Meme, Part 2 Aug 13, 2009
Outside the school, the Journal's Jonathan Weisman Diane Campbell of Kingston, N.H. Campbell's mother has an autoimmune disease that "is treated with expensive transfusions of gamma globulin, paid for by Medicare." Campbell's sister, the story notes, "was born with no arms and one leg, and is also covered by Medicare, the government-run, health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.". In a more logical world, one might expect Campbell's worldview to incorporate the reality that her... (Slate)
Bypass Surgery Has Long-term Benefits For Children With Kawasaki Disease, Study Suggests Jul 5, 2009
Researchers note a decreasing trend for small children to undergo this operation because of the progress in medical care includes early treatment with the drug gamma globulin. Furthermore, less invasive procedures, such as percutaneous coronary intervention (which routes a catheter through a blood vessel to the site of the blockage), are often attempted prior to surgery. (Science Daily)
The Secret Lives of Monoclonal B Cells Feb 12, 2009
Their revelations were first uncovered indirectly in serum through reactions with microbes, cells, and toxins; increases in gamma globulin after immunization; agammaglobulinemia associated with immune deficiency; and the paraproteins in multiple myeloma and related disorders that ultimately revealed the structure of immunoglobulins and prompted the two-gene one-antibody hypothesis. Further revelations, often surprising and unique, came from the B cells themselves: clonal expansion, allelic... (New England Journal of Medicine)
