Free Research Paper Topics

Free Research Paper Topics

• E1. Endometriosis can be a debilitating and painful inflammatory disease affecting the female reproductive tract. A controversy exists concerning the role of immune cells in endometriosis. Investigate whether the immune system plays a causal role in endometriosis or if the immune system is only secondarily involved.

• E2. There are significant problems in the field of xenotransplantation of solid organs to humans. What are the most important of these problems in consideration of the organ recipients immune response to the organ. How are these problems being addressed now experimentally and which types of transplants are most likely to be first available in the future?

• E3. Celiac disease involves intestinal hypersensitivity and “chronic inflammatory cells”. It is also associated with malignant lymphoma and dermatitis herpetiformis. Determine if there is one or more mechanistic explanation(s) that link all three?

• E4. What are the dominant theories on the mechanism(s) of induced tolerance to solid organ transplants, by regulatory T cells? Choose what you consider the most likely mechanism, and justified your choice from recent experimental and clinical investigations.

• E5. There are a variety of gene mutations or deficiencies that reduce or eliminate the ability of B cells and/or T cells to recombine their receptor genes. Some of these have been modeled using mouse gene knock-outs. Choose two of the human immuno-deficiencies and compare them to the mouse counterparts and discuss how well the experimental model can instruct on the human manifestation of the disease.

• E6. NK-T cells seem to regulate initiation of inflammatory responses, but are they capable of involvement in autoimmune diseases? Provide evidence for or against a role for NK-T cells from both experimental models and human autoimmune disease. Argue which evidence provides the best proof of a role for NK-T cells in autoimmunity.

• E7. A growing theory links development of allergic diseases (skin and lung, not just intestinal) with intestinal bacterial flora in humans. Describe the most important experimental and clinical evidence that supports a mechanistic basis for the association. Try to discriminate if the association is causal (presence or absence of certain bacterial flora causes allergic disease) versus regulatory (presence or absence modifies disease outcome).

• E8. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease caused primarily by T cells. Recent evidence indicates that some autoimmune mechanisms can be regulated by specific T cell subsets that are generated after ingestion of autoantigens. What is known about this regulatory mechanism and MS, and what are the prospects for control of this disease by “oral tolerance”?

• E9. Numerous “tumor specific antigens” are self proteins that may be over-expressed or expressed abnormally in tumor cells, but would be otherwise considered autoantigens. Development of a “cancer therapeutic vaccine” requires overcoming this “self tolerance” and initiating some degree of autoimmunity. Discuss the approaches taken to break the tolerogenic state and the mechanisms suggested for inducing “autoimmunity”.

• E10. Myeloma is a malignancy normally associated with old age. Why? What is it about the bone marrow or perhaps aging B cells that allows unregulated growth of plasma cells? What are current therapies for multiple myeloma?

• E11. What did the recent episode of SARS teach us about the possible outbreak of Bird Flu and how can we prepare for a subsequent epidemic by a prophylactic versus therapy approach?

• E12. Mouse monoclonal antibodies have proven useful in the detection and therapy of cancer. Discuss the advantages of these products and how these developments have been applied to human disease. Discuss how “humanized” antibodies are now being used for therapeutic intervention and whether drugs such as “Herceptin” have a role to play in human cancer therapy?

• E13. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) has been an important treatment option for patients with profound immunodeficiency. However, it has recently been used with some success in reducing graft rejection processes and countering chronic inflammatory diseases or autoimmune diseases. Where is it used and why? How does it work?

• E14. Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition where the possibility of specific autoimmune mechanisms is not clearly resolved. In 25% of patients with psoriasis, arthritis will also develop. Is there a specific mechanistic connection here? How do the mechanisms and treatments of psoriatic arthritis compare to Rhematoid arthritis? Can one make the case that some autoantigens do exist in Psoriatic skin as well as psoriatic athritic joints?

• E15. The human fetus is a particular type of allograft that is rarely rejected by the immune system of the mother. Why? Do known mechanisms of immunologic fetal rejection instruct as to how the fetus is normally protected?

• E16. Allergies are diagnosed with the help of skin testing and are treated with “desensitization” or “immunotherapy”. What is the evidence that both of these procedures effectively do what they are supposed to do? What are the mechanistic explanations for problems around skin testing for determining allergens and for how “immunotherapy” works? How would you approach a therapeutic intervention for peanut allergy?

• E17. Wiscott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS) is a genetic immunodeficiency that results in a spectrum of disease depending on the precise nature of the gene defect. Discuss the nature and severity of the immune dysfunctions, its manifestations and current treatments. Is WAS a disease amenable to treatment by bone-marrow/stem cell transplantation?

• E18. Loss of platelets or platelet function (thrombocytopenia) is often related to either type II or type III immune mechanisms and can be autoimmune in nature. Compare several forms of thrombocytopenia for the underlying mechanism, differential diagnosis, and treatment options that can control the aberrant immune response(s).

• E19. Infection and exacerbation of autoimmune diseases are often linked. How might toll-like receptors and bacterial infection alter initiation or progression of autoimmune disease(s)? What types of self-tolerance mechanisms might be altered?

• E20. Lung transplantation continues to have significant limitations due to antibody mediated rejection processes. What are the problems, mechanisms and means of prevention of these rejection processes? Why is the transplanted lung such a sensitive organ to antibody-mediated disease?

• E21. One of the primary non-hematopoietic cells that determine the degree of immune cell mediated pathology is the endothelial cell. It provides several crucial functions in renal graft rejection. Discuss the key features of endothelial cell interactions with immune cells during different types of rejection processes.

• E22. Systemic Lupus Erythematosis (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that is characterized by the presence of circulating antibodies directed against a series of nuclear factors and components. Discuss the nature of these antigens, how the abnormal autoimmune system is detected and what therapies are available to modify the course of this disease.

• E23. Viruses that establish chronic infections, such as HIV and Hepatitis C, have developed mechanisms to evade the immune system. Discuss several of these mechanisms and suggest therapeutic approaches that may overcome the evading pathways and interfere with viral infection.

• E24. We are exposed to a very large amount of potential antigens in the food that we eat, but most individuals do not develop allergy to these antigens. Some individuals develop life threatening allergies to foods such as peanuts. Discuss the ways in which the immune response differentiates between food antigens and pathogenic bacteria, such as E coli, and trace the development of allergy in those individuals who are food sensitive.

• E25. Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease that gives rise to granuloma formation and has developed a strain that appears to be “drug resistant”. Discuss what this means for current therapies and what are the most recent advances to prevent and treat this disease?

• E26. Stem cells are the current “hot topic” in medicine and hold “great promise” for tissue repair and regeneration. Discuss what barriers exist to current use , for example in nerve repair, and what is being done/developed to get closer to therapy.

• E27. In HIV studies, recent data points to the gut as the first site where CD4 cells are depleted. Discuss how this might occur and what this may mean to attempts to deliver therapies to HIV infected individuals.

• E28. Contact hypersensitivity is a term describing the process whereby individuals become “reactive” to agents in the environment which they have contacted. Discuss the mechanisms involved in this development and outline several of the most prevalent agents that elicit this response.