Researchers discover inflammatory 'dimmer switch'
From left to right: Associate Professor Martin J Stone, Ms. Zil e Huma (First author PhD student), Ms. Julie Sanchez (PhD student)and Mr. Cheng (Enzo) Huang (PhD student)
Featured in LabOnline, research by Monash BDI in collaboration with Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) has uncovered a key aspect of the process of inflammation, involving chemokines — a group of proteins that are secreted into blood vessels — activating receptors in our white blood cells.It appears that the chemokines behave more like a dimmer switch, with stronger but briefer responses resulting in acute inflammation while longer, steadier responses can result in chronic inflammation.The research, published in Science Signaling has the potential to contribute to new treatments for inflammatory diseases including type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, heart attack and stroke.
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