Tuberculosis is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. Nearly 2 million people die every year from this infectious disease, and an estimated 2 billion people are chronically infected. The only vaccine, developed almost 100 years ago, offers limited protection and patients are becoming increasingly resistant to available drugs.

For the first time, Mount Sinai researchers have identified a way to make large numbers of immune cells that can help prevent cancer reoccurrence, according to a study published in August in Cell Reports. The researchers discovered a way to grow the immune cells, called dendritic cells, at large scale in the lab to study them for their potential use in highly refined cancer vaccines to prevent patients' cancer from coming back.

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden, have in collaboration with colleagues in Copenhagen and Singapore, mapped how the body's own peptides act to reduce infection and inflammation by deactivating the toxic substances formed in the process. The study is published in Nature Communications and the researchers believe their discovery could lead to new drugs against infection and inflammation, for example in wound healing.

Step aside carrots, onions and broccoli. The newest heart-healthy vegetable could be a gigantic, record-setting radish. In a study appearing in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists report that compounds found in the Sakurajima Daikon, or "monster," radish could help protect coronary blood vessels and potentially prevent heart disease and stroke.

Researchers report in Nature Communications they figured out why air sacs in the lungs clog up with a thick substance called surfactant in a brutal disease called Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (PAP), and they show taking cholesterol-busting pills called statins can effectively treat the disease. That's good news for people with PAP because at present the current standard treatment is something called a whole lung lavage.

Over the course of our life, we are continuously exposed to pathogens such as viruses and bacteria, meaning that our immune system is constantly at work. When stimulated by either pathogen or vaccine, the immune system notably mounts what is known as a "humoral response", which corresponds to the production of antibodies that can help fight infections and provide long-term protection.

Mushrooms from the Far East area contain the natural chemical compounds, which could be used for the design of the novel drugs with highly specific anti-tumor activities and low-toxicity. These compounds may offer new avenues for oncology, providing us with either stand-alone alternatives to chemotherapy, chemopreventive medicines, or drugs to be used in combination with other therapies.