Many patients with chronic illnesses such as AIDS, cancer, autoimmune diseases, suffer from an additional disease called cachexia. The complex, still poorly understood syndrome, with uncontrollable weight loss and shrinkage of both fat reserves and muscle tissue is thought to contribute to premature death. Researchers at CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences describe the molecular mechanisms of cachexia during viral infection and identify a surprising role for immune cells.
Source: EurekaAlert, https://www.eurekalert.org