2020

A recent study published in Nature Immunology shows the presence of SARS-CoV-2 specific memory T cell responses in patients recovered from COVID-19. The breadth and strength of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses were higher in patients with more severe disease...

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal plasma cell malignancy which causes an incurable disease. This summary discusses CD229 CAR as potential new therapy for Multiple myeloma. MM develops in bone marrow and causes bone lesions with fractures, kidney failure, bone marrow failure, and immunoparesis with fatal infections.

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.

In a recent case study report in published recently in JCI, authors show a woman with COVID-19 in the second trimester of pregnancy, who had severe hypertension, coagulopathy, and preeclampsia. The authors found that on histological examination, that the placenta had diffuse perivillous fibrin