Lin et al., 2020 have described a hypothetical model of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis based on the immune response against SARS, MERS and influenza infection. In all cases, lymphopenia accompanied by the cytokine storm syndrome...
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COVID-19 – Cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression
Mehat, P. et al recently stated that there is accumulating evidence suggests that a subgroup of patients with severe COVID-19 might have cytokine storm syndrome. Immunosuppression treatment could help severe COVID-19 patients.
WORLD TB DAY: COVID-19 & TB
Recently, published pre-print by Chen et al., 2020, suggests that M.tb infection (Latent Tuberculosis) and TB disease are also potential risk factors for COVID-19 disease and may predispose individuals to severe disease. More studies are required to confirm this, as well as to determine which other infectious diseases increase your risk of having severe COVID-19.
Kinetics of Immune Response in a Mild COVID-19 Patient
We report findings of an Australian COVID-19 Case study of a 47 year womanThevarajan et al., aimed to determine the “kinetics and breadth of immune responses associated with clinical resolution of COVID-19.” Specifically, the conducted immune-profiling of blood samples at day 7-9 post symptoms, and day 20 (recovered).
Immuno-Ethiopia: Fungal epidemiology and immunology
This article we shall focus on Fungal immunology talks presented by Dr J. Claire Hoving (University of Cape Town). Dr Hoving’s first talk focused on “The Epidemiology of fungal infections”, she highlighted that although fungal infections cause more than 1.5 million deaths annually, the impact on human health is not....
Immuno-Ethiopia: Malaria Highlight 2
Our second highlight is on talks that focused on understanding malaria parasite transmission, motility and emergence of anti-malarial resistance, as well as the neutrophil activity in malaria friend or foe. Prof. Frischknech (Ruprecht-Karis University, Heidelberg) gave a lecture on ‘’Transmission of malaria – from microscopy to experimental vaccine studies’’.
Immuno-Ethiopia: Malaria Highlight 1
Our first Immuno-Ethiopia highlight is on talks by Dr Yaw Bediako (PhD), WACCBIP, University of Ghana, about “Immunity to malaria’’ and “Exploring naturally acquired immunity to malaria: Systems Immunology and Human Cohort Studies”. He highlighted the global malaria burden emphasizing that Africa contributes to 75% of this burden.
Single-cell RNA-Seq of BAL samples from COVID-19 patients
A recent study by Liao et al., “comprehensively characterised the lung immune microenvironment of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from 3 severe and 3 mild COVID-19 patients and 8 previously reported healthy lung controls through single-cell RNA sequence combined with TCR-sequencing.”
Type I interferon co-stimulation of MAIT cell function
Recent evidence suggest that Type I-interferons (T1-IFNs) IFN-α and IFN-β can activate of MAITs. However, this mechanism is not fully understood. Researchers from New Zealand aimed to investigate this and specifically focused on the role of T1-IFN-mediated activation of MAITs in the context of MR1-TCR activation.
The (Un)usual Suspect-Novel Coronavirus Identified
The 2019 novel coronavirus (CoV) causes fatal pneumonia that has claimed over 1300 lives, with more than 52000 confirmed cases of infection by February 13, 2020, all in the span of just over a month. But, what is this virus? Is it a new virus altogether? Where did it come from?