breaking news – Page 8 – NEW Immunopaedia

breaking news

Can anti-HIV drugs, Lopinavir and Ritonavir, be used to treat patients with severe COVID-19?

Results of a randomised, controlled, open-label trial involving hospitalised adult patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were reported in a recent article in NEJM. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either…

ChelekaMay 25, 2020

Figure 2. Reversal of immune dysfunction and CCR5 receptor occupancy in critically ill COVID-19 patients after leronlimab administration. a-c, Plasma levels of IL-6 (a), and peripheral blood CD8+ T cell percentages of CD3+ cells (b) and CD4/CD8 T cell ratio (c) at days 0 (n=10), 3 (n=10), 7 (n=7), and 14 (n=6) post-leronlimab administration. Healthy controls (n=10) shown in black triangles. Graphs display p-values calculated by Dunn’s Kruskal-Wallis test: not significant p > 0.05, *p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001, ****p ≤ 0.0001. d-e, CCR5 receptor occupancy on peripheral blood bulk T cells (d), and monocytes (e). f, SARS-CoV-2 plasma viral load at days 0 and 7 post-leronlimab (n=7). Graph displays p-value calculated by Mann-Whitney test: *p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001, ****p ≤ 0.0001. (Source Patterson et al., Pre-Print)

breaking news

Can the Cytokine Release Syndrome in COVID-19 patients be treated using CCR5 blocking antibody therapy?

Recent pre-peer manuscript, a study examined 10 terminally-ill, critical COVID-19 patients treated with to identify which cytokines and potential therapies could be applied to prevent this cytokine release syndrome (CRS).…

ChelekaMay 22, 2020

breaking news

IUIS Webinar: Adaptive Immunity in COVID-19

21th MayDid you watch the IUIS Webinar on Adaptive Immunity: Memory, Protection and Immunopathology in COVID-19 by Professor Andreas Radbruch (Director of the German Rheumatism Research Centre Berlin). Prof Radbruch presented…

ChelekaMay 21, 2020

Histological changes in lungs of rhesus macaques on 7 days post infection. a) Focal interstitial 138 pneumonia in lungs of a control animal (blue box). The area in the black box is magnified in 139 panel b. b) Interstitial pneumonia with edema (asterisk), type II pneumocyte hyperplasia 140 (arrowhead) and syncytial cells (arrow) in control animals. c) SARS-CoV-2 antigen (visible as 141 red-brown staining) was detected by immunohistochemistry in type I and type II pneumocytes in 142 the lungs of control animals. d) No histological changes were observed in the lungs of ChadOx1 143 nCoV-19-vaccinated animals. e) Higher magnification of lung tissue in panel d. No evidence of 144 pneumonia or immune-enhanced inflammation is observed. f) No SARS-CoV-2 antigen was 145 detected by immunohistochemistry in the lungs of vaccinated animals. Magnification: panels a, d 146 40x; panels b, c, e, f 400x.(Source van Doremalen et al., 2020)

breaking news

Can a Chimpanzee vector vaccine prevent SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia?

In a pre-peer reviewed bioRxiv manuscript, authors show that the adenovirus-vectored vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, encoding the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, is immunogenic in mice, showing a robust humoral and cell-mediated…

ChelekaMay 20, 2020

(a) Immunofluorescent staining of SARS-CoV-2-infected intestinal organoids. Nucleoprotein (NP) stains viral capsid. After 24 hours, single virus-infected cells are generally observed in organoids. These small infection clusters spread through the whole organoid after 60 hours. (Source: Lamers et al., 2020)

breaking news

Getting to the guts of SARS-CoV-2 infection

It has been well described how SARS-CoV-2 infects lung tissue and causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, but now there is evidence to emerge that the intestine may also be involved…

ChelekaMay 19, 2020

breaking news

Cigarette smoke triggers increased ACE-2 expression in the lung

Smith et al., showed that cigarette smoke causes a dose-dependent upregulation of ACE-2 in rodent and human lungs. Using single-cell sequencing data, they demonstrated that ACE 2 is expressed in…

ChelekaMay 18, 2020

breaking news

Respiratory disease and viral shedding in rhesus macaques inoculated with SARS-CoV-2

Munster, et al. showed that SARS-CoV-2 causes respiratory disease in infected rhesus macaques, with disease lasting 8-16 days. Pulmonary infiltrates, a hallmark of human disease, were visible in lung radiographs…

ChelekaMay 15, 2020

breaking news

IUIS Webinar: What cancer immunologists are doing about COVID-19 ?

Did you watch the IUIS Webinar : "What cancer immunologists are doing about COVID-19?" by Rachel Humphrey, a medical oncologist, who is currently serving as Head of Research and Development…

ChelekaMay 14, 2020

a | Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination has been shown to protect against multiple viral pathogens, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza A virus and herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV2). Will it protect against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)? b | Trained immunity leading to enhanced innate immune responses to different pathogens after a vaccination is mediated by metabolic and epigenetic rewiring in innate immune cells, which leads to increased gene transcription and improved host defence. c | Trained immunity as a tool for enhancing population immunity during a pandemic ahead of the availability of a specific vaccine. TNF, tumour necrosis factor. (Source: O'Neil & Netea, 2020)

breaking news

BCG induced trained immunity & COVID-19

Recent commentary by Luke O’Neill and Mihai Netea discusses “the non-specific beneficial effects of BCG vaccination against viral infections and whether this vaccine may afford protection to COVID-19”. In their…

ChelekaMay 13, 2020

breaking news

Is there a SARS-CoV-2 receptor (ACE2) expression difference between males and females?

In a recent article by Song et al., titled “Expression of ACE2, the SARS-CoV-2 receptor, and TMPRSS2 in prostate epithelial cells” analysed publicly available single-cell RNA sequencing dataset and identified…

ChelekaMay 12, 2020

(a)In antibody-mediated viral neutralization, neutralizing antibodies binding to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the viral spike protein, as well as other domains, prevent virus from docking onto its entry receptor, ACE2. b | In antibody-dependent enhancement of infection, low quality, low quantity, non-neutralizing antibodies bind to virus particles through the Fab domains. Fc receptors (FcRs) expressed on monocytes or macrophages bind to Fc domains of antibodies and facilitate viral entry and infection. c | In antibody-mediated immune enhancement, low quality, low quantity, non-neutralizing antibodies bind to virus particles. Upon engagement by the Fc domains on antibodies, activating FcRs with ITAMs initiate signalling to upregulate pro-inflammatory cytokines and downregulate anti-inflammatory cytokines. Immune complexes and viral RNA in the endosomes can signal through Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3), TLR7 and/or TLR8 to activate host cells, resulting in immunopathology. (Source: Iwasaki and Yang. Nat. Rev. Immunology 2020)

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Roles of different anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in COVID-19 disease and protection

Which proteins do IgM and IgG Abs recognise on the SARS-CoV-2 virus? Can these Abs provide protection or facilitate inflammation and disease progression? The simple answer is that we don’t…

ChelekaMay 11, 2020

breaking news

Exaggerated immune response to Covid-19

Effective host immune responses are required for optimum viral control. Immune reactions to a viral threat, on the contrary, could also be harmful to the host if the response is…

ChelekaMay 11, 2020

breaking news

Can neonates born to mothers with COVID-19 acquire maternal infection ?

Zeng et al., investigated neonates born to mothers with COVID19 recruited from Wuhan Children's Hospital (Wuhan, China) (1). Consistent with previous studies, clinical symptoms from these neonates with or at…

ChelekaMay 8, 2020

Bar charts illustrating the relative frequencies of the original Wuhan form (D614, orange), and the form that first emerged in Europe (G614, blue)based on the numbers in part (A). A variation of this figureshowing actual tallies rather thanfrequencies, so the height of the bars represent the sample size, is provided as Fig. S2. C)A global mapping of the two forms illustrated by pie charts over the same periods. The size of the circle represents sampling. An interactive version of this map of the April 13thdata, allowing one to change scale and drill down in to specific regions of the world is available at https://cov.lanl.gov/apps/covid-19/map, and updates of this map based on contemporary data from GISAID are provided atwww.cov.lanl.gov. (Source: Korber et al., Pre-Print)

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Mutation in the Spike protein may explain higher infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 and accelerated disease.

In a recent pre-peer reviewed bioRxiv manuscript, Bette Korber and colleagues have used a newly developed analysis pipeline to track mutations in the Spike protein; being the target of drug…

ChelekaMay 7, 2020

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IUIS Webinar: Global outbreaks – Interferons as 1st responders

IUIS Webinar on Interferons as 1st responders by Professor Eleanor Fish (University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada)."Can antivirals that target the host and not the virus improve outcomes for COVID-19 patients?"Highlights…

ChelekaMay 6, 2020

breaking news

An inventory of the vaccine candidates to SARS-CoV-2

Over 90 vaccine candidates are being developed as part of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A snapshot of the eight different ways to elicit host immunity with vaccines…

ChelekaMay 5, 2020

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COVID-19: extending or relaxing distancing control measures

Study by Kiesha Prem and colleagues (1) indicate the effects of extending or relaxing physical distancing control measures on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China. They use…

ChelekaMay 4, 2020

Schematic of vaccination of BALB/c mice with saRNA encoding pre-fusion stabilized spike protein in LNP (Source: McKay, et al., BioRxiv)

breaking news

Is a self-amplifying RNA SARS-CoV-2 lipid nanoparticle a good vaccine candidate?

This pre-peer reviewed article compares the humoral and cellular immune response of a self-amplifying (sa)RNA encoding a pre-fusion stabilised SARS-CoV-2 spike protein encapsulated in a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) in a…

ChelekaMay 3, 2020

b, Schematic illustration depicts major anatomical regions in the human respiratory tree demonstrated in this study: nasal, lower airway and lung parenchyma (left). Expression of ACE2 is from airway epithelial cell datasets: Vieira Braga et al.26 (middle) and Deprez et al.27 (right). Datasets were retrieved from existing sources and cell clustering and nomenclature were retained based on the respective studies. For gene expression results in the dot plots, the dot size represents the proportion of cells within the respective cell type expressing the gene and the dot color represents the average gene expression level within the particular cell type. (Source:

breaking news

SARS-CoV-2 transmission exploits existing secretory pathways in the nasal cavity: a vaccine/drug target?

Investigators in a brief communication in Nature Medicine utilised the Covid19 cell atlas database to identify gene expression of the SARS-CoV-2 entry receptor ACE2 and other genes potentially associated with…

ChelekaMay 2, 2020

breaking news

The role of complement in COVID-19 pathogenesis.

A recent commentary in Nature Reviews Immunology cites the role of complement in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and that possibly targeting the inhibition of the complement cascade may be…

ChelekaMay 1, 2020

breaking news

Scientific Response to COVID-19 Video

Did you watch the IUIS Webinar on The Global Scientific Response to COVID-19 by Giuseppe Ippolito (Scientific Director at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome, Italy)."Giuseppe Ippolito shares…

ChelekaApril 30, 2020

breaking news

Can two FDA-approved drugs be re-purposed to clear SARS-CoV-2 infection?

Scientists in Japan found that the combination of FDA-approved drugs, Nelfinavir (a protease inhibitor) and Cepharanthine (an anti-inflammatory) showed a synergistic inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro. Additional studies have…

ChelekaApril 29, 2020

breaking news

Should we consider SARS-CoV-2 human challenge models for vaccine testing ?

A recent article by Eyal and colleagues suggest using “Human Challenge Studies to Accelerate Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) Vaccine Licensure”. “The proposed trial method would potentially cut the wait time for the rollout…

ChelekaApril 28, 2020

breaking news

Mask wearing to reduce the spread of COVID-19

On 28 February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the global risk of the spread of COVID-19 to very high.Dr Leung and colleagues Dr Lam and Dr Cheng discuss…

ChelekaApril 27, 2020

Characterization of PiCoVacc. (A) SARS-CoV-2 maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree. The SARS-CoV-2 isolates used in this study are depicted with black lines and labeled. The continents where the virus strains were from are colored differently. (B) Growth kinetics of PiCoVacc (CN2) P5 stock in Vero cells. (C) Flowchart of PiCoVacc preparation. (D) Protein composition and purity evaluation of PiCoVacc by NuPAGE 4-12% Bis-Tris Gel. (E) Representative electron micrograph of PiCoVacc. (Source: Gao et al., 2020; Pre-Print)

breaking news

Development of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines

In this pre-peer reviewed article, the authors report on the development of a purified inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate which they show induces virus-specific moderately broadly neutralizing antibodies in mice, rats…

ChelekaApril 26, 2020

breaking news

Cytokine Release Syndrome & COVID-19

A recent perspective in Science asked whether there are lessons that can be learned from arthritis and cell therapy in cancer for COVID-19. Severe disease in 20% of COVID-19 cases…

ChelekaApril 25, 2020

breaking news

COVID-19 Antibody Immunology Video

Webinar by Prof. Danny Altmann from Imperial College London reviews new and exciting studies on COVID-19 antibody immunology and emerging data from all around the world. We have written articles…

ChelekaApril 24, 2020

After an incubation period, the invading COVID-19 virus causes non-severe symptoms and elicits protective immune responses. The successful elimination of the infection relies on the health status and the HLA haplotype of the infected individual. In this period, strategies to boost immune response can be applied. If the general health status and the HLA haplotype of the infected individual do not eliminate the virus, the patient then enters the severe stage, when strong damaging inflammatory response occurs, especially in the lungs. At this stage, inhibition of hyaluronan synthase and elimination of hyaluronan can be prescribed. Cytokine activated mesenchymal stem cells can be used to block inflammation and promote tissue reparation. Vitamin B3 can be given to patients starting to have lung CT image abnormalities. (Source: Shi et al., 2020)

breaking news

Uncertainty is hampering doctors’ ability to treat COVID-19

There is a great deal of uncertainty prevailing across the globe over the current COVID-19 pandemic, and clinicians and scientists are working hard to find a cure to treat this…

ChelekaApril 23, 2020

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Detection of SARS-CoV-2 nAbs in cats

Zhang et al, investigated the infection of SARS-CoV-2 in cats by detecting specific serum Abs. A cohort of serum samples were collected from cats in Wuhan, including 102 sampled after…

ChelekaApril 22, 2020

breaking news

Susceptibility of domestic animals to SARS-Cov-2

Although SARS-CoV-2 shares 96.2% identity with the coronavirus RaTG13, which was detected in horseshoe bats in Yunnan province (1), it has not previously been detected in humans or other animals.…

ChelekaApril 21, 2020

Fig 1: COVID-19 data (till April 14, 2020) of select countries depicting approx. rates of test positivity, death and recovery (data analyzed from references 5,6)

breaking news

Indian population could have intrinsic immunity to resist COVID-19 challenge

In a short span of time, COVID-19 has become a rapidly spreading communicable disease forcing the WHO to declare it as the “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” on January…

ChelekaApril 20, 2020

DCT values (Ctsample-Ctref) from patients with mild and severe COVID-19 at different stages of disease onset. Median, quartile 1, and quartile 3 are shown. (Liu et al., 2020)

breaking news

Viral dynamics in mild vs severe COVID-19

Due to the heterogeneity of disease symptoms in those infected with the COVID-19-causing virus, SARS-CoV-2, Liu and colleagues (Liu et al., 2020) set out to elucidate whether there were differences…

ChelekaApril 19, 2020

breaking news

SARS-CoV-2 transmission and mask wearing.

Use of face masks, has gained much attention, with the World Health Organization urging people to use them wisely as there is a worldwide shortage. As a result, the general…

ChelekaApril 18, 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 sera option for containing COVID-19

According to Casadevall A and Pirofski using convalescent sera as passive antibody (Ab) therapy may be an option for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 that could be available as…

ChelekaApril 17, 2020

breaking news

Potential SARS-CoV-2 & COVID-19 Vaccines

As the number of novel coronavirus infections rises daily across the globe, strategies for developing a safe and effective vaccine are rapidly moving forward. Recently published perspective by Amanat &…

ChelekaApril 16, 2020

breaking news

COVID-19 Vaccinology Videos

Did you watch the IUIS Webinar on COVID-19 Vaccines by Rino Rappouli (Chief Scientist and Head of R&D at GSK. If you missed it, please watch it below. Prof. Gary Kobinger…

ChelekaApril 15, 2020

breaking news

Chloroquine treatment and COVID-19

In 2005, after the 2002-3 SARS epidemic researchers demonstrated the in-vivo anti-viral effect of chloroquine in primate cell lines infected with SARS-CoV. These results were further confirmed by Gao et al., Wang et al., & Liu…

ChelekaApril 14, 2020

breaking news

Exhaustion of antiviral NK and CD8 T cells in SARS-CoV-2 infection

Natural Killer (NK) cells and CD8+ Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes (CTLs) play key roles in the control of viral infections. Zheng et al have studied the function of these lymphocytes in…

ChelekaApril 13, 2020

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The different clinical characteristics of COVID-19 between children and adults.

Su et al., showed that COVID-19 in children has a mild or asymptomatic clinical process, which is a largely better prognosis than that in adults. However, PCR positivity in stool…

ChelekaApril 12, 2020

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Safety considerations in laboratory practice when testing specimens from patients suspected or infected with SARS-CoV-2

The recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, has again heightened the need for laboratories to review their biosafety practices and to update them with the new recommendations.

ChelekaApril 11, 2020

Graphical illustration of serological test developed by Li et al., 2020

breaking news

A serological assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 seroconversion in humans

An alternative method for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection would be using serological tests that detect SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody (Ab) responses. However, no SARS-CoV-2 serological assays are available at point of care..

ChelekaApril 10, 2020

breaking news

Where did SARS-CoV-2 come from?

In previous zoonotic coronavirus events (SARS & MERS), near-identical strains of the virus were found in animal intermediate hosts; however, a near-identical strain of SARS-CoV-2 has yet to be found…

ChelekaApril 9, 2020

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Faecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2

Wu et al investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in respiratory and faecal samples among patients with confirmed COVID-19 (n=74). Of these, 33 had no SARS-CoV-2 RNA in their faecal…

ChelekaApril 8, 2020

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COVID-19 spurs interest in preprints and improves scientific collaboration

Opinion While rigorous peer review ensures studies are held to high standards, it is not a short process, with some papers taking months or even years to get published. However,…

ChelekaApril 7, 2020

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BCG & COVID-19

Miller et al., (Pre-print) suggest a correlation between BCG vaccination policy and COVID-19. They suggest that high rates of COVID-19 in countries such as Italy, Netherlands and USA, could be…

ChelekaApril 6, 2020

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Potent neutralizing antibodies isolated from COVID-19 patients

Bin et al isolated and characterized 206 potential therapeutic and prophylactic monoclonal Abs from 8 COVID-19 patients. The isolated Abs were found to prevent RBD-ACE-2 interaction and to have high…

ChelekaApril 5, 2020

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The potential benefit of high-dose intravenous Ig in severe COVID-19

Cao et al., describe a promising clinical outcome of three patients presenting with severe COVID-19 and treated with high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg). According to the authors "All patients were clinically…

ChelekaApril 4, 2020

Source: Kupferschmidt &Cohen, Science 2020

breaking news

SOLIDARITY TRIAL: Testing existing drugs to treat COVID-19

In an attempt to avoid repeating the mistakes of the 2014–16 West African Ebola epidemic, where clinical trials were set up late, leading to the under-recruiting of patients – in…

ChelekaApril 3, 2020

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Why is COVID-19 so mild in children?

One explanation for the milder COVID-19 disease presentation in children may be that children have a qualitatively different response to the SARS-CoV2 virus to adults (1). Another possibility is the common…

ChelekaApril 2, 2020

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SOLIDARITY TRIAL: WHO COVID-19 treatment trial

In an unprecedented effort to obtain scientific data during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the new SOLIDARITY trial that would include thousands of patients from…

ChelekaApril 1, 2020

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Could blood groups influence COVID-19 disease severity?

Biological factors that determine susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and severity of COVID-19 are yet to be fully understood. A pre-print released in medRxiv by Zhao et al suggests that the ABO…

ChelekaMarch 31, 2020

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Why are hypertension and diabetes patients at high risk of severe COVID-19?

Retrospective analysis of COVID-19 patient history showed that 12-22% and 23-30% of severe COVID-19 patients also had diabetes and hypertension, respectively. This and other reports suggest that hypertension and diabetes…

ChelekaMarch 30, 2020

breaking news

The Origin of SARS-CoV-2

Andersen et al have described the genomic structure of SARS-CoV-2. Notably, the virus has a receptor binding domain consisting of 6 amino acids which not only differentiates it from SARS-CoV…

Bonamy HoltakMarch 29, 2020

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Does COVID-19 have a seasonal pattern?

Since the SARS-CoV-2 virus started to circulate in the different countries that the COVID-19 pandemic has reached, a possible seasonal pattern in the presentation of the disease has been hypothesized.…

Bonamy HoltakMarch 28, 2020

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Broad-spectrum Antiviral Inhibits SARS-CoV-2

27 MarchSheahan et al recently pre-published a paper that states that ribonucleoside analog β-D-N4-hydroxycytidine (NHC, EIDD-1931) has broad spectrum antiviral activity against SARS-CoV 2, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and related zoonotic group…

Bonamy HoltakMarch 27, 2020

breaking news

Hypothetical pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans

Lin et al., 2020 have described a hypothetical model of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis based on the immune response against SARS, MERS and influenza infection. In all cases, lymphopenia accompanied by the…

ChelekaMarch 26, 2020

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COVID-19 – Cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression

Mehat, P. et al recently stated that there is accumulating evidence suggests that a subgroup of patients with severe COVID-19 might have cytokine storm syndrome. Immunosuppression treatment could help severe…

Bonamy HoltakMarch 25, 2020

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WORLD TB DAY: COVID-19 & TB

Recently, published pre-print by Chen et al., 2020, suggests that M.tb infection (Latent Tuberculosis) and TB disease are also potential risk factors for COVID-19 disease and may predispose individuals to severe…

ChelekaMarch 24, 2020

a, Timeline of COVID-19, showing detection of SARS-CoV-2 in sputum, nasopharyngeal aspirates and feces but not urine, rectal swab or whole blood. SARS-CoV-2 was quantified by rRT-PCR; cycle threshold (Ct) is shown. A higher Ct value means lower viral load. Dashed horizontal line indicates limit of detection (LOD) threshold (Ct = 45). Open circles, undetectable SARS-CoV-2. b, Anteroposterior chest radiographs on days 5 and 10 following symptom onset, showing radiological improvement from hospital admission to discharge. c, Immunofluorescence antibody staining, repeated twice in duplicate, for detection of IgG and IgM bound to SARS-CoV-2-infected Vero cells, assessed with plasma (diluted 1:20) obtained at days 7–9 and 20 following symptom onset. (Source: Thevarajan et al., 2020. Breadth of concomitant immune responses prior to patient recovery: a case report of non-severe COVID-19. Nature Medicine.)

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Kinetics of Immune Response in a Mild COVID-19 Patient

We report findings of an Australian COVID-19 Case study of a 47 year womanThevarajan et al., aimed to determine the “kinetics and breadth of immune responses associated with clinical resolution…

ChelekaMarch 23, 2020

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Immuno-Ethiopia: Fungal epidemiology and immunology

This article we shall focus on Fungal immunology talks presented by Dr J. Claire Hoving (University of Cape Town). Dr Hoving’s first talk focused on “The Epidemiology of fungal infections”,…

ChelekaMarch 20, 2020

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Immuno-Ethiopia: Malaria Highlight 2

Our second highlight is on talks that focused on understanding malaria parasite transmission, motility and emergence of anti-malarial resistance, as well as the neutrophil activity in malaria friend or foe.…

ChelekaMarch 18, 2020

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Immuno-Ethiopia: Malaria Highlight 1

Our first Immuno-Ethiopia highlight is on talks by Dr Yaw Bediako (PhD), WACCBIP, University of Ghana, about “Immunity to malaria’’ and “Exploring naturally acquired immunity to malaria: Systems Immunology and…

ChelekaMarch 13, 2020

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Single-cell RNA-Seq of BAL samples from COVID-19 patients

A recent study by Liao et al., “comprehensively characterised the lung immune microenvironment of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from 3 severe and 3 mild COVID-19 patients and 8 previously reported…

ChelekaMarch 11, 2020

Type I interferons enhance activation and effector responses of TCR‐stimulated blood and liver‐derived MAIT cells. Type I interferons contribute to MAIT cell activation by riboflavin producing bacteria, and act directly on MAIT cells. Together, this suggests type I interferons are important early modulators of the MAIT cell TCR response. (Source: European Journal of Immunology)

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Type I interferon co-stimulation of MAIT cell function

Recent evidence suggest that Type I-interferons (T1-IFNs) IFN-α and IFN-β can activate of MAITs. However, this mechanism is not fully understood. Researchers from New Zealand aimed to investigate this and…

ChelekaMarch 5, 2020

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The (Un)usual Suspect-Novel Coronavirus Identified

The 2019 novel coronavirus (CoV) causes fatal pneumonia that has claimed over 1300 lives, with more than 52000 confirmed cases of infection by February 13, 2020, all in the span…

ChelekaMarch 3, 2020

DQ8-Dd-villin-IL-15tg mice were maintained on a gluten-free diet (GFD; sham), fed gluten for 60 days (gluten), or fed gluten for 30 days and then reverted to a GFD (gluten→GFD) for 30 days. a, Experimental timeline. b, Left, haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining of paraffin-embedded ileum sections. Scale bars, 200 μm. Right, graph depicts the ratio of the morphometric assessment of villus height to crypt depth (GFD, n = 9; gluten, n = 13; gluten→GFD, n = 11 mice). c, Serum levels of anti-DGP IgG antibodies were measured by ELISA. Serum was collected sequentially in the same mice (n = 12) before gluten feeding (untreated), 30 days after gluten feeding (gluten d30), and 30 days after reversion to a GFD (GFD d60). (Source Abadie et al., 2020)

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Murine model of coeliac disease

Abadie et al., developed transgenic DQ8-Dd-villin-IL-15tg mice, which express the HLA-DQ8 [HLA associated with genetic predisposition to coeliac disease), as well as over-express IL-15 by both the lamina propria and…

ChelekaFebruary 27, 2020

Live-cell imaging of NET formation in two different channels for up to 120 minutes. SYTOX Green at 10 nM was used for NET detection (depicted in green; left panels), and a TYE™-665 labeled hsa-miR142-3p locked nucleic acid (LNA) detection probe at 5 μM for miR-142-3p detection (depicted in red; middle panels). The hsa-miR-142-3p staining was present in two different morphological patterns: one shows a strong staining (asterisk), and the other reveals a weak staining that can be either punctate (blue arrow) or diffuse (white arrows). The right panels show the merge of the two channels. Bars: 20 μm. (Source: Linhares-Lacerda et al., 2020)

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miRNA carried by NETs modulate macrophage function

Researchers from Brazil aimed to determine if small non-coding RNA molecules known as microRNAs (miRNA) are associated with NETs. miRNAs regulate cellular processes and can be detected both intra- and…

ChelekaFebruary 21, 2020

A nurse demonstrates how a measles vaccine is administered at the Orange County Health Department on May 6, 2019 in Orlando, Florida. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of measles cases in the United States as of May 6, 2019 has climbed to 764 in 23 states, with 60 new cases reported in the past week, breaking recent records. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Does mumps immunity induced by 2 doses of MMR wane in adulthood?

Researchers from Emory University and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US aimed to determine if individuals vaccinated with 2 doses of (97% of the cohort) MMR in…

ChelekaFebruary 19, 2020

Graphical abstract of Wang et al., 2020, Immunity 52, 1–14

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Fever: A positive regulator of Th17 mediated inflammation

Researchers led by Prof Chen Dong from Tsinghua University (Beijing, China) have demonstrated that increased body temperature critically regulates the differentiation and pathogenicity of Th17, a subset of T cells…

ChelekaFebruary 14, 2020

Schematic representation of CRISPR-Cas9 NYCE T cells. (Source: Stadtmauer et al., 2020)

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T cells altered by CRISPR may be safe to use in cancer patients

Scientists from USA have recently reported on the first human phase I clinical trial that tested the safety of using CRISPR edited immune cells in patients with advanced cancer. CRISPR-Cas9…

ChelekaFebruary 12, 2020

Chng et al., 2019. Graphical Abstract. (Source Chng et al., 2019 Immunity)

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DENV-infection induces two major CD8 T cell memory subsets

A study by Chng et al., used CYTOF and Luminex to determine cellular activation, phenotypic, memory and functional kinetics associated with acute (febrile), post-febrile and early convalescent DENV infection. As…

ChelekaFebruary 7, 2020

Scheme illustrating the mechanisms by which cytoplasmic protein FROUNT modulates tumor-associated macrophages. ( Source: Terashima et al., 2020 Nat Comm)

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Repurposing of a drug for alcoholism to treat cancer

Functional activity by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) contribute to an immunosuppresive micro-environment that inhibits killing of cancerous cells. TAMs have been associated with poor prognosis of cancer patients on immunotherapy. Thus…

ChelekaFebruary 4, 2020

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Measles induced immunological amnesia

Epidemiological studies have associated measles infection with increased childhood morbidity and mortality up to 5 years post-infection. This association could be due “immunological amnesia” where measles infection has been reported…

ChelekaJanuary 31, 2020

Age-standardised sepsis (A) incidence per 100 000 population for both sexes, in 2017, and (B) percentage of all deaths related to sepsis, age-standardised for both sexes, in 2017 ATG=Antigua and Barbuda. FSM=Federated States of Micronesia. LCA=Saint Lucia. TLS=Timor-Leste. TTO=Trinidad and Tobago. VCT=Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Rudd et al., 2020 Lancet)

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SEPSIS is WANTED!

Sepsis is life-threatening organ dysfunction due to a dysregulated host response to infection (Singer et al., 2016). Sepsis is actually recognised as a major global health problem, and the World…

ChelekaJanuary 28, 2020

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Discovery of novel cancer signalling mechanism

Active mutations in KIT tyrosine kinase are found in several cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, the different locations in the AML cells where KIT induces cancer-specific signaling…

ChelekaJanuary 24, 2020

Graphical Abstract of Exploiting the cancer niche: Tumor-associated macrophages and hypoxia as promising synergistic targets for nano-based therapy by Silva and Al-Jamaal 2017 Journal of Controlled Release.

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Macrophages and Cervical Cancer: What’s going on with the microenvironment ?

Sánchez-Reyes et al., evaluated the effect of supernatants from cerival cancer derived-cell lines on the phosphorylation of STAT1, NF-kb-p65 and STAT6 and the impact in the secretion profile of cytokines…

ChelekaJanuary 21, 2020

Schematic mechanisms of release and ccfDNA characteristics. Source: OLIVEIRA, Isadora Bernardo David de and HIRATA, Rosario Dominguez Crespo. Circulating cell-free DNA as a biomarker in the diagnosis and prognosis of colorectal cancer. Braz. J. Pharm. Sci. [online]. 2018, vol.54, n.1

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How DNA outside cells can be targeted to prevent the spread of cancer

Study lead by Prof Ryushin Mizuta, have now discovered exactly how cfDNA is generated. They also talk about the applications of DNase1L3-the enzyme mainly responsible for generating cfDNA-as a novel…

ChelekaJanuary 17, 2020

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Solving the puzzle of IgG4-related disease, the elusive autoimmune

Study lead by Prof. Masato Kubo, “planned to explore how IgG4 Abs contributes to the CTL-mediated pancreas tissue damage in IgG4-RD, and also to evaluate the pathogenic function of human…

ChelekaJanuary 15, 2020

Figure: During infection in rice blast fungus, chitin from its cell wall breaks down into chitosan and acetic acid. This process stimulates cell differentiation in the host plant, leading to appressorium formation, which then facilitates the infection process.

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How the rice blast fungus “eats” its own cell wall to launch an attack

In response to environmental changes and nutrient starvation, cells are known to undergo extreme alterations. This includes switching from one type to another (“differentiation”) and changes in metabolic pathways (“metabolic…

ChelekaJanuary 13, 2020

Protection against Mtb infection after IV BCG immunization. a, Lung inflammation (total FDG activity) and number of lung granulomas over the course of infection as measured by serial PET–CT scans. Each line shows one NHP over time; 3 NHPs (2 unvaccinated (unvax) and 1 IDlow) reached a humane end point before 12 weeks. tntc, too numerous to count. b, Three-dimensional volume renderings of PET–CT scans of each NHP at the time of necropsy. PET was limited to the thoracic cavity; the standardized uptake value colour bar is shown in the top right and indicates FDG retention, a surrogate for inflammation. (Source Darrah et al., 2020)

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Can intravenous-BCG prevent M.tb infection ?

In this article, we highlight a recently published article by Darrah et al., which aimed to determine how dose and route of BCG vaccination influence the generation of systemic and…

ChelekaJanuary 7, 2020

Wierzbicki et al., 2019 Graphical Abstract (Source: Wierzbicki et al., 2019 Cell Reports)

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How does group A Streptococcus evade immunity?

Wierzbicki et al., utilised Biomimetic Virulomics a nanotechnology-enabled affinity enrichment coupled with multiplexed quantitative proteomics platform to enrich red blood cell (RBC)-specific effector proteins secreted by GAS.

ChelekaDecember 9, 2019

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TB biomarker based on anti-Ag85B and 4 inflammatory molecules.

We report findings from a recently published article “A rapid triage test for active pulmonary tuberculosis in adult patients with persistent cough”(Ahmed et al., 2019).Ahmed et al., “hypothesized that a blood protein-based...

ChelekaDecember 4, 2019

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Immuno-Jaipur Highlight: Primary immunodeficiencies

In our final article about the proceedings of the Immuno-Jaipur course, we shall highlight talks given by faculty about their research on PIDS. Children with PIDs are often misdiagnosed for…

ChelekaNovember 28, 2019

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Immuno-Jaipur Highlight: Clinical viral immunity

This article highlights talks about viral immunity. Prof Gray presented his research on the impact of HIV on placental and fetal immunity, while Dr Groom presented on the importance of…

ChelekaNovember 26, 2019

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Immuno-Jaipur Highlight: MHC and Transplantation Immunology

The theme of the 5th and last day of Immuno-Jaipur was Clinical Immunology, which included talks from researchers that conduct translational research. In this article we shall highlight talks by…

ChelekaNovember 22, 2019

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Immuno-Jaipur Highlight : Part 2 of Day 4

Day 4 of Immuno-Jaipur included talks by Oliver Boyer and Hannes Stockinger. Prof. Olivier Boyer lecture highlighted the origin and perspectives of CAR-T cells for treatment of cancer patients. He briefed…

ChelekaNovember 20, 2019

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Immuno-Jaipur Highlight : Day 4

Day 4 of the Immuno-Jaipur included talks from renowned Professors Shubhada Chiplunka, Sunil Arora, Hannes Stockinger, Abul Abbas and Oliver Boyer. In think article we shall highlights information relayed by…

ChelekaNovember 19, 2019

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Immuno-Jaipur Highlight: Part 2 of Day 3

In addition to talks by Prof Abbas, Day 3 of Immuno-Jaipur included talks on autoimmunity and chronic inflammation. Prof. Bernhard Fleisher gave a talk on autoimmunity in the central nervous…

ChelekaNovember 15, 2019

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Immuno-Jaipur Highlight of talks by Abul Abbas

In this article we shall focus on talks given by Prof. Abul Abbas, which focused on regulatory cells, role of T cells in autoimmunity and inflammation, as well as therapeutic…

ChelekaNovember 14, 2019

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Immuno-Jaipur Highlight: Insights into innate and adaptive immunity

“Young immunologists should remember that at least half of written in immunological textbooks is probably wrong; we just do not know which half”..The 2nd day of the IUIS-IIS-FIMSA Immuno-Jaipur workshop…

ChelekaNovember 13, 2019

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IUIS-IIS-FIMSA-Immuno-Jaipur Report

IUIS-IIS-FIMSA-Immuno-Jaipur Basic and Advanced Translation Immunology Course brought together experts in the field of immunology from across the globe to interact and discuss with the young researchers and clinicians.The opening…

ChelekaNovember 12, 2019

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IUIS Beijing ICI 2019

Last month, the official International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) conference that took place in Beijing, China. ICI 2019 was opened by 3 wonderful talks by Nobel Laureates Peter Doherty,…

ChelekaNovember 8, 2019

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IDA Highlight: What’s New in anti-HIV humoral immunity.

Humoral immunity is one of the most studied aspects of anti-HIV immunity. This year IDA Symposium faculty members gave talks on various aspects of anti-HIV humoral immunity. Richard Koup, began…

ChelekaNovember 6, 2019

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IDA Highlight: Current state of malaria vaccines

We had two talks on Malaria research, one that focuses on understanding immune responses associated with repeated malaria infections, and the other on malaria vaccinology titled “Vaccine-Induced Antibody-Mediated Immunity Against…

ChelekaNovember 5, 2019

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IDA Highlight: Scanning the TCR repertoire to inform new TB vaccine targets

There are 4000 known M.tb antigens, current strategies exploring potential epitopes to target use IFN-Y ELISA to determine cellular responses to people infected (versus uninfected) to see if they elicit…

ChelekaOctober 31, 2019

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IDA Highlight: Possible barriers and opportunities for HIV cure

Thumbi N’dungu from African Health Research Institute (AHRI) was one of the faculty members, who presented on “Possible barriers and opportunities for HIV cure in patients who initiate treatment during…

ChelekaOctober 30, 2019

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IDA Highlight: Not all levels of malaria exposure induce the same anti-malarial immunity

We highlight Dr Yaw Bediako’s (faculty) presentation on “Performing immunological studies in human cohorts - Systems approaches to studying immunity to malaria”.

ChelekaOctober 29, 2019

The current TB vaccine pipeline (last update September 2019). Source: TuBerculosis Vaccine Intitiative (TBVI) [tbvi.eu/what-we-do/pipeline-of-vaccines/]

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IDA Highlight: Immune responses to TB vaccines

Dr Elisa Nemes from SATVI presented on the current status of TB vaccinology, where she primarily focused immunological aspects of tested vaccine strategies. Immunoprofiling of TB-vaccine induced immunity, still primarily…

ChelekaOctober 28, 2019

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IDA Highlight: CD4 T cells in HIV infection

CD4 T cells are well known as the main target for HIV infection, however, their T cell antiviral activity during His infection is not as well known. This year the…

ChelekaOctober 23, 2019

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Career Advice from IDA faculty that were once previous IDA Scholars

The 9th IDA Symposium began with a "Science and Career Advice" session presented by speakers who were once IDA as a student or Post-Doc, and are now faculty members. Highlights…

ChelekaOctober 18, 2019

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