Back from our weekend (more on that in the next couple of days, with photos, too) and…back to work again…:-)

Earlier today I came across a newly-published study in “Blood” (http://tinyurl.com/y29l7up) on the evil deeds of IL-17, a proinflammatory cytokine (=in a nutshell, a cytokine is a signalling molecule that immune system cells use to communicate with other cells…), which has a prominent role in angiogenesis, the process of new blood vessel formation that is essential for the survival of myeloma cells…angiogenesis is, in fact, one of the big targets of myeloma treatment.

The new study shows that myeloma patients have elevated blood levels of IL-17, which promotes myeloma cell growth and interferes with the regular functioning of our immune system…ooooh, not good. I don’t like the idea that something is having a negative impact on my immune system…

Anyway, I thought this new abstract was quite interesting, and it also took me back to a post I published more than two years ago (for a reminder, please see: http://tinyurl.com/y54rofj) on, tada!, this evil thingamajig called IL-17.

But the news isn’t all bad. As you can see if you read the above link, curcumin inhibits IL-17. So those of us that are taking curcumin regularly should be in good shape. At least, I hope we are!