2020

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is a complex inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. The incidence of IBD is on the rise worldwide and possible triggers of the disease include an inflammatory response ...

The last IUIS COVID-19 webinar featured a talk by Alexi Kalergis: Impairment of the immunological and neurological synapses by respiratory viruses and the implications for the design of vaccines.

Recent medRxiv pre-print reports on an interim analysis of an adenovirus type 26 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate (Ad26.COV2.S). This was a phase 1/2a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical study consisting of a non-replicating adenovirus 26 based vector...

Kariuki et al., demonstrate that individuals with Dantu blood groups express RBC surface proteins that play a role in parasite invasion into the RBC (e.g. CGYPA, GYOC, Band 3) at different levels as those with other blood group types. This differential protein expression significantly affects the ability...

In the presented article the authors assessed the effect of a late boost in sustaining these desired antibody responses towards the HIV-1 Env in a multi-clade, multigene HIVIS-DNA priming, and heterologous recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA-CMDR) boosting regimen (HIVIS03/06).

This article summarises webinar that featured talks by Prof Clive Gray: on severe vs mild/asymotmatic COVID-19 and Dr Melinda Suchard on Macrophage activation and Nicotinamide pathways in COVID-19.

A recent review in eLife synthesises data from multiple studies to propose a synergistic interaction between SARS-CoV-2 infection and obesity and/or diabetes leading to impaired endothelial function and gut barrier function. This impairment results in microbial translocation into the systemic circulation...

This article focuses on recent virological findings by Jiang et al., that conducted a comparative investigation of the viral reservoirs of elite controllers and individuals with ART-induced functional cure. Authors demonstrated that the quality of viral reservoirs is potentially more important than the quantity of viral reservoir.

Coeliac disease is a complex autoimmune condition which currently affects 1% of the global population. Due to its complexity, the diagnosis of the diseases poses unique challenges and patients often face delayed treatment, particularly for those with mild pathology. In this review, current and putative diagnostics for coeliac disease are discussed.

In this webinar researchers from the University of Ghana discuss the analysis of SARS-CoV-2 sequences which include imported and circulating viruses at the inception of Ghana’s outbreak, and circulating viruses 2-3 months after Ghana’s first reported cases. Joyce Ngoi’s describe the experimental workflow used to generate SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences and Peter Quashie presented data on the analysis of genomic data.