August 2020

breaking news

SARS–CoV-2 infection of the placenta

In a recent case study report in published recently in JCI, authors show a woman with COVID-19 in the second trimester of pregnancy, who had severe hypertension, coagulopathy, and preeclampsia.…

Bonamy HoltakAugust 31, 2020

breaking news

Immuno-Algeria: Microbial dysfunction & allergy

We highlight a lecture by Yasmine Belkaid on "The control of immunity and allergy by Microbiota." She described how data from skin microbiome sequencing in association with immune signatures...

ChelekaAugust 28, 2020

breaking news

Can saliva be used to test for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2?

A non-invasive test for mucosal and systemic antibody responses may be an effective way of population screening for humoral immunity to infection. MedRxiv Pre-print compares IgG and IgA Abs in…

ChelekaAugust 27, 2020

breaking news

SAIS/Immunopaedia Webinar: COVID-19 Vaccines

This webinar, co-hosted by South African Immunology Society (SAIS) and Immunoapedia featured talks by Prof Shabir Madhi on "COVID-19 vaccines being evaluated in South Africa" and Prof Ed Rybicki on…

ChelekaAugust 26, 2020

breaking news

COVID-19 & Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children

Children are less susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and if they do become infected, majority of children will have asymptomatic or mild COVID-19. Recent reports have described cases of severe hyperinflammation…

ChelekaAugust 25, 2020

breaking news

Do SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells confer long-lived protection?

Investigators from Sweden have reported on SARS-CoV-2-specific memory T cells and long-term immune protection against COVID-19. The authors examined the function and phenotype of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses in a…

ChelekaAugust 24, 2020

breaking news

Immuno-Algeria: Allergic activity of IgE binding molecules

Allergens are characterized by two important properties; the first being the allergenicity and the second being the allergenic activity. The later represents the capacity of an allergen to induce allergic…

ChelekaAugust 21, 2020

Figure 1: Schematic illustration for the proposed use of convalescent sera as therapy and prophylaxis in COVID-19. More information and various requirements for deployment and use of convalescent sera in COVID-19 can be found in Casadevall A and Pirofski (1).

breaking news

Convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 is safe.

Joyner et al., studied a cohort of 5000 participants, 81% with severe or life-threatening COVID-19% with a high risk of severe progression, who received convalescent plasma therapy. They reported a…

ChelekaAugust 20, 2020

breaking news

IUIS Webinar: Stress dampens anti-viral immunity

Yuting Ma presented data from a murine stress model, that demonstrated that stressed mice have a lower capacity to induce viral-specific T cell immunity and lower B cell activation than…

ChelekaAugust 19, 2020

breaking news

COVID-19 in vitro studies: Use the right cell line

Hoffman et al., demonstrated that (hydroxy)chloroquine inhibited viral entry in Vero (kidney-derived) cell-lines that did not express TMPRSS2, but had no inhibitory effect on Vero cells-lines that expressed TMPRSS2. Additionally,…

ChelekaAugust 18, 2020

breaking news

SAIS/Immunopaedia Webinar: Antibody responses and serology testing

The South African Immunology Society (SAIS) in collaboration with Immunopaedia hosted a webinar on "Antibody responses and serology testing" which featured talks by by Penny Moore: "Can we characterised immunity…

ChelekaAugust 17, 2020

breaking news

Immuno-Algeria: IgE & its receptors as a pharmacological targets

This week we highlight a talk by Professor Ulrich Blank entitled “IgE and its affinity IgE receptor as a pharmacological target”. In the first part of his presentation, Professor Ulrich gave a…

ChelekaAugust 14, 2020

breaking news

SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies as potential COVID-19 treatment.

Using a humanized mouse model and B cells from COVID-19 convalescent individuals, Hansen et al., describe the discovery of two SARS-CoV2-specific antibodies: REGN10933 and REGN10987 that are currently being tested…

ChelekaAugust 13, 2020

breaking news

IUIS Webinar: Predicting survival and severity of COVID-19

Based on the heterogeneity of COVID-19 pathology, Sacha and colleagues hypothesised that cytokines such as IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β and TNF could potentially predict disease severity and outcome. Sacha demonstrated that…

ChelekaAugust 12, 2020

breaking news

Treating COVID-19 with immunoglobulins, should we be cautious?

Nguyen et al. published a review article describing the use of immunoglobulins as a treatment for COVID-19. As COVID-19 cases rise at a rapid rate, there is great need to…

ChelekaAugust 11, 2020

breaking news

RNA-based vaccine BNT162b1 induces robust IgG and T cell immunity

BioNTech recently published results of their Phase 1/2 safety and immunogenicity BNT162b1 COVID-19 vaccine trial. BNT162b1 is a lipid-nanoparticle encapsulated RNA vaccine that encodes the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2…

ChelekaAugust 7, 2020

breaking news

IUIS Webinar: Longitudinal COVID-19 Immune Profiling

This week we highlight IUIS webinar by Elizabeth Mann and Madhvi Menon, who discussed findings from their recent longitudinal immune profiling study with admitted COVID-19 patients across four hospitals in…

ChelekaAugust 6, 2020

breaking news

Immuno-Algeria 2020: Cellular components of the allergic response

This summary highlight talks by Mehrnaz Mesdaghi who gave an overview of the role of mast cells, basophil and eosinophils in allergy, and how effector functions of these cells can…

ChelekaAugust 5, 2020

breaking news

Tissue tolerance in COVID-19

A recent preprint article in Medrxiv explored whether inflammation in COVID-19 is a direct response to presence of the virus in organs or an independent immuno-pathologic process. Post-mortem tissue samples…

ChelekaAugust 4, 2020

breaking news

Does the D614G mutation in SARS-CoV-2 spike protein result in the virus being more susceptible to neutralization by the host?

The D614G mutation in the spike protein of SARS-Co-V2 was described recently and has now become the dominant viral strain in global circulation and has also been shown to result…

ChelekaAugust 3, 2020

SARS–CoV-2 infection of the placenta

Immuno-Algeria: Microbial dysfunction & allergy

Can saliva be used to test for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2?

SAIS/Immunopaedia Webinar: COVID-19 Vaccines

COVID-19 & Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children

Do SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells confer long-lived protection?

Immuno-Algeria: Allergic activity of IgE binding molecules

Convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 is safe.

IUIS Webinar: Stress dampens anti-viral immunity

COVID-19 in vitro studies: Use the right cell line

SAIS/Immunopaedia Webinar: Antibody responses and serology testing

Immuno-Algeria: IgE & its receptors as a pharmacological targets

SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies as potential COVID-19 treatment.

IUIS Webinar: Predicting survival and severity of COVID-19

Treating COVID-19 with immunoglobulins, should we be cautious?

RNA-based vaccine BNT162b1 induces robust IgG and T cell immunity

IUIS Webinar: Longitudinal COVID-19 Immune Profiling

Immuno-Algeria 2020: Cellular components of the allergic response

Tissue tolerance in COVID-19

Does the D614G mutation in SARS-CoV-2 spike protein result in the virus being more susceptible to neutralization by the host?

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