Receptor with “rubber band” as starting point for the development of new pain and cancer drugs

10-Dec-2025 - The human P2X4 receptor plays an important role in chronic pain, inflammation and some types of cancer. Researchers at the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) have now discovered a mechanism that can inhibit this receptor. The results were recently published in the ...

How immune cells deliver their deadly cargo

24-Oct-2025 - When immune cells strike, precision is everything. New research reveals how natural killer and T cells orchestrate the release of toxic granules – microscopic packages that destroy virus-infected or cancerous cells. The study led by researchers from CeMM, St. Anna CCRI, MedUni Vienna, Med Uni ...

New Bioactive Compound for Difficult-to-Treat Allergies

Study leads to the discovery of a promising receptor blocker

02-May-2025 - Irritable bowel syndrome, chronic itching, asthma and migraine are in many cases hard-to-treat conditions. They have in common that they are triggered by an excessive immune response—which in severe cases can be life-threatening. A team of researchers led by the University of Bonn has now ...

How Immune Cells “Sniff Out” Pathogens

Researchers are using an innovative method to watch immune receptors go about their business

19-Nov-2024 - Immune cells are capable of detecting infections just like a sniffer dog, using special sensors known as Toll-like receptors, or TLRs for short. But what signals activate TLRs, and what is the relationship between the scale and nature of this activation and the substance being detected? In a ...

Immune cells have a backup mechanism

If the TBK1 enzyme is mutated, susceptibility to viral infections increases – unless it is missing

14-Mar-2023 - The enzyme TBK1 is an important component of the innate immune system that plays a critical role in the defense against viruses. Upon mutation-induced loss of TBK1 function, patients show an increased susceptibility to viral infections. Strikingly, if TBK1 is not expressed at all, this clinical ...

Newly discovered process brings immune cells up to speed

Study identifies mechanism otherwise found in metastasizing cancer cells

18-Oct-2022 - Cancer cells use an unusual mechanism to migrate into new tissue and form metastases there. The same process probably also keeps some immune cells on their toes. This is the result of a recent study led by the University of Bonn. According to the study, certain structures, the centrioles, ...

Covid-19: New energy for flagging immune cells

Hope for new treatment options

29-Jul-2022 - In severe Covid-19 patients, the metabolism produces insufficient amounts of certain energy-rich compounds called ketone bodies. However, these energy carriers are needed by two important cell types in the immune system in order to fight the virus effectively. Perhaps this finding explains why ...

Study shows how bioactive substance inhibits important receptor

Results from the University of Bonn raise hope for new drugs against cancer and brain diseases

29-Mar-2022 - The A2A receptor regulates how vigorously the innate immune system attacks diseased cells. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to show for the first time how an important inhibitor binds to the receptor. In the future, the results will facilitate the targeted search for ...

The fatal role of T cells in COVID-19

Safety mechanism is put out of action

06-Jan-2022 - Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), together with colleagues from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the university hospitals in Bonn and Aachen, have found a type of immune cells that is particularly active in severely ill COVID-19 patients. The CD16 positive T ...

Epigenetics: Immunisation is passed on to offspring

22-Oct-2021 - Does an infection also affect the immunisation of subsequent generations? Researchers at Radboud University (Netherlands) have investigated this together with the Universities of Bonn, Saarland, Lausanne (Switzerland) and Athens (Greece). Mouse sires that had previously overcome infection with ...