September 2020

Our final Immuno-Algeria highlight is a on a talk by Professor Jonny Peter (UCT, SA), who gave an excellent talk about drug hypersensitivity in TB/HIV endemic settings. He began his talk with a basic overview on drug hypersensitivity and the immunological mechanisms associated with these conditions. Followed by an overview of the TB/HIV...

This webinar, co-hosted by South African Immunology Society (SAIS) and Immunoapedia featured talks by Prof Christine Benn on “BCG for COVID-19 - hope or hype?” & Prof Gerhard Walz on “BCG trials for COVID-19 in SA - progress and promise. Studies have shown that in addition to BCG providing protection against TB in children, it also have non-specific effects ...

A recent paper in Nature has shown some key differences in immune responses during COVID-19 between males and females. The authors found that in SARS-CoV-2 infected males, levels of proinflammatory chemokines and cytokines, such as IL-8, IL-18 and CCL5 were higher and correlated with elevated non-classical monocytes. In females, they found higher levels...

Researchers led by Professor Chiharu Nishiyama investigated the gene expression mechanism of PD-L2, a cell-surface molecule that is specifically expressed by DCs and macrophages. In DCs, PD-L2 acts as a “checkpoint” that ensures that the immune cells do not incorrectly destroy healthy cells.

This week we shall highlight IUIS-FAIS-SAI-AAA Immuno-Algeria lectures by Professors Carsten Schmidt-Weber and Claude Lambert on non-invasive methods to diagnose and monitor allergy response, as well as a lecture by Professor Rudolph Valenta on “Next generation of allergen-specific immunotherapies: molecular approaches”.

A recent paper in Science used a systems biology approach to determine host immune responses to COVID-19 using an array of cellular and molecular procedures. On initial immune cell screening, the authors found an increase in plasmablasts and effector CD8 T cells in the peripheral blood and a decrease in plasmacytoid dendritic cells.

In this Webinar, Kathleen Sullivan discusses how COVID-19 impacts immunodeficient patients. She began her talk emphasising that majority of COVID-19 research has focused on pathogenesis, however, very limited knowledge is available on the intersections between COVID-19 and immunodeficiency.