SQU study reveals interesting findings on immune cell production

Muscat: A study published by academics at Sultan Qaboos University revealed for the first time that some important human innate immune cells can produce the medicaine that intervenes in many important phenomena including cancer, inflammation, control of blood pressure and cell proliferation.

Oman News Agency (ONA), said in a statement: "The study showed that the innate immune cells can control the proliferation of blood vessel cells through the production of the protein medicaine, and also determined the type of innate immune cells (macro phagocytes and some dendritic cells) that can produce medicaine in the human body."

The results of the study suggest that medicaine production from dendritic and macrophage cells may be involved in inflammation and tumorigenesis and potentially be important in angiogenesis, a process necessary for the survival of cancer cells.

The research team for the study was headed by Dr. Elias Saeed - Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the university. A group of researchers from the same department participated in it in cooperation with researchers in the departments of pathology, hematology, biochemistry and biology at the College of Science at Sultan Qaboos University in addition to the Hospital Armed Forces in Muscat and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Medicaine plays a prominent role in interfering with viral infections such as HIV infection and in various physiological processes including reproduction, inflammation, innate immunity, blood pressure control, and angiogenesis. It is also associated with diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis and cancers.

The production of innate immune cells of medicaine in these cases and the regulation of its production from these cells leads to beneficial results, including inhibiting the growth of cancerous tumors, especially since medicaine has a role in resisting some anti-cancer therapies. These results highlight new immune phenomena that have potential and important therapeutic implications.