December 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.