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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

We highlight a lecture by Yasmine Belkaid on "The control of immunity and allergy by Microbiota." She described how data from skin microbiome sequencing in association with immune signatures...

A non-invasive test for mucosal and systemic antibody responses may be an effective way of population screening for humoral immunity to infection. MedRxiv Pre-print compares IgG and IgA Abs in serum and saliva from acute & convalescent patients.

This webinar, co-hosted by South African Immunology Society (SAIS) and Immunoapedia featured talks by Prof Shabir Madhi on "COVID-19 vaccines being evaluated in South Africa" and Prof Ed Rybicki on "Alternative vaccine approaches for SARS-CoV-2".