Successful use of PD-1 blockade for cancer immunotherapy, has brought up the question as to whether this same therapy could be successful against infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) and HIV.
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Can a vaccine prevent ZIKV associated fetal abnormalities ?
Researchers from Germany aimed to determine whether measles-virus expressing Zika envelope protein E (MV-Zika-sE) sufficiently prevent...
Does mucosal BCG vaccination induce “protective” immunity ?
It is hypothesised that lung mucosal (muc-) BCG vaccination may overcome this pitfall by inducing robust mucosal immunity. Researchers from Netherlands aimed
Are CD8+ and DN MAIT cells distinct populations ?
Study by Dias et al., aimed to determine the difference in transcriptional, activation and functional capacity of CD8+ and DN MAIT cells. They defined MAIT cells...
What can ZIKV-CD8 T cells do ?
Vaccines rely on the induction of adaptive T and B cells responses to confer long term immunity. A potential challenge to inducing protective ZIKV immunity by vaccination, is pre-existing dengue virus (DENV) immunity. Both ...
Can some Tfh cells produce IFN-𝛾 ?
Tfh cells predominantly produce IL-21, however growing evidence has shows that these cells in vivo can also produce IFN-𝛾 (Th1) and IL-4 (Th2) cytokines. This suggests that the dogma of “one transcription factor, one cell type”...
Have you heard of the ESAT-6 free IGRA ?
One of the proposed strategies to combat the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic is the development of pre-exposure vaccines that prevent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infection. In theory, such a vaccine would induce protective...
Are distinct monocyte subsets associated with severe Chagas diseases?
Argentinian researchers (Pérez-Mazliah et al.,) aimed to evaluate frequencies of these 3 different monocyte populations during different phases of Chagas...
Does HIV superinfection induce an additive or synergistic Ab effect?
Understanding immune responses in individuals who have HIV superinfections* could be the key to understanding how the immune system responds to sequential exposure...
Where do memory B cells get reactivated?
Vaccines harness this arm of immunity by typically inducing long lived plasma cells and/or memory B cells (MBC) that secrete antibodies (Ab)*.Unlike plasma cells, MBCs do not continuously produce Abs...