2020

Recently, disturbance in type I interferons (IFN-I) has shed some light on why certain individuals may be at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease. IFN-I describes a family of interferon cytokines that are important in the interference of viral spread and replication.

This article aims to provide a brief overview of the BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 COVID-19 vaccines efficacy results published in peer-reviewed journals. Both vaccines were tested in young and elderly, as well as individuals with comorbidities such as diabetes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

The hallmark of vitiligo immunopathology is the development of “white” patches of skin due to the destruction of melanocytes. Mukhataye et al., demonstrates that GD3-reactive CAR-Treg transfer to vitiligo-prone mice provided significant protection against depigmentation.

Few individuals naturally develop bnAbs, therefore developing a vaccine that can induce these Abs is one of the goals of HIV vaccinology. A recent study by Huang et al., utilised CRISPR-Cas9 technology and immunisation to induce HIV bnAbs in humanised mice. They isolated mature B cells from C57BL/6J ...

We have recently provided summaries on BNT162b1, mRNA-1273 and Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine. This article shall focus on information we have available for ChAdOxnCoV-19, Ad26.COV2.S and Ad5 vector vaccines, CoronaVac inactivated vaccine, and Recombinant protein vaccine NVX-CoV2373.

Garcia-Cordero’s lab have designed an indirect immunoassay microfluidic chip that can detect the presence of circulating IgM and IgG against 4 main SARS-CoV-2 proteins (Spike, S1 subunit, receptor binding domain, and nucleocapsid proteins) in an automated high-throughput system. The microdevices uses only 6 μL of serum and can detect up to 50 samples in < 3 hours.

As most of pathogens, SARS-CoV-2 can be recognized by PRRs on innate. Normally, this recognition helps the innate immunity to eliminate the infection or to activate the adaptive immune responses, however, SARS-CoV-2 can use its proteins such as M, N, NSP1 and PLpro to interfere with these pathways.

In a recent Cell article, Kotliar et al., utilise RNA-sequencing and mass cytometry to immune profile 21 rhesus monkeys before or during lethal Ebola virus challenge in vivo. This study represents the first BSL-4 study to investigate pathogenic immunity using high dimensional single-cell technologies.

We highlight a recently published study by Thacker et al., 2020, which utilised the lung-on-a-chip to understand the role of surfactants during the early stages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) growth. They showed that surfactants play an essential role in restricting bacterial group.

In their recent Frontiers in Immunology article, Yegorov et al., report that psoriasis patients have elevated levels of IL-1α, a cytokine central to the control of inflammation. In addition, the researchers found that psoriais is associated with alterations of the gut microbiome, which persisted over time.