1,721,176 research outputs found
Cellular immunology and COVID-19
In “Cellular Immunology and COVID-19” (a Special Issue of Cells), a panel of leading scientists provides an exhaustive overview of the different aspects of the immune mechanisms underlying COVID-19 [...
The Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination: Insights Learned From Adult Patients With Common Variable Immune Deficiency
CVID patients have an increased susceptibility to vaccine-preventable infections. The question on the potential benefits of immunization of CVID patients against SARS-CoV-2 offered the possibility to analyze the defective mechanisms of immune responses to a novel antigen. In CVID, as in immunocompetent subjects, the role of B and T cells is different between infected and vaccinated individuals. Upon vaccination, variable anti-Spike IgG responses have been found in different CVID cohorts. Immunization with two doses of mRNA vaccine did not generate Spike-specific classical memory B cells (MBCs) but atypical memory B cells (ATM) with low binding capacity to Spike protein. Spike-specific T-cells responses were also induced in CVID patients with a variable frequency, differently from specific T cells produced after multiple exposures to viral antigens following influenza virus immunization and infection. The immune response elicited by SARS-CoV-2 infection was enhanced by subsequent immunization underlying the need to immunize convalescent COVID-19 CVID patients after recovery. In particular, immunization after SARS-Cov-2 infection generated Spike-specific classical memory B cells (MBCs) with low binding capacity to Spike protein and Spike-specific antibodies in a high percentage of CVID patients. The search for a strategy to elicit an adequate immune response post-vaccination in CVID patients is necessary. Since reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 has been documented, at present SARS-CoV-2 positive CVID patients might benefit from new preventing strategy based on administration of anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies
COVID-19 in complex common variable immunodeficiency patients affected by lung diseases
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: In the general population, the risk of severe COVID-19 is associated with old age, male sex, hypertension, obesity and chronic diseases. Chronic lung diseases are listed as additional risk factors for hospitalization and ICU admission. The purpose of this review is to define whether chronic lung diseases, such as bronchiectasis and interstitial diseases, represent a risk for a severe SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients affected by common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), the most common symptomatic primary antibody defect. RECENT FINDINGS: CVID patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection have been reported since the beginning of the pandemic with a wide range of clinical presentations ranging from asymptomatic to mild/moderate and severe COVID-19. The meta-analysis of 88 CVID cases described in large cohorts and case reports demonstrated that CVID patients with chronic lung involvement have an increased risk for severe COVID-19 in comparison to CVID without lung diseases (50 vs. 28%, relative risk 1.75, 95% confidence interval 1.04--2.92, P = 0.043). Differently from the general population, age and metabolic comorbidities did not represent a risk factor for severe course in this patient's population. SUMMARY: Underlying chronic lung diseases but not age represent a risk factor for severe COVID-19 in CVID. Prompt therapeutic intervention should be adopted in SARS-CoV-2 positive CVID patients with chronic lung diseases independently of their age
Mouse rosette forming cells and surface immunoglobulins in human lymphoid cells
Peripheral blood lymphocytes from normal subjects were studied for mouse rosette-forming cells (MRFC) and their relationship to surface immunoglobulins (SIg). The majority of MRFC expressed both SIgM and SIgD, although some dissociation between population showing SIgM+/MRFC- and SIgM-/MRFC+ could be seen. A similar pattern of association was found in human derived cultured cells of B lineage, but no simple correlation and the number of SIgM+ cells could be established. Increased percentages of MRFC were detected in two foetal livers but greater dissociation of MRFC and SIgM was shown. This heterogeneity of MRFC may be explained by a selective expression of this surface marker in the early stages of B lymphocyte differentiation
Immunotherapy with thymosine in immunosuppressed patients with severe virus infections | IMMUNOTERAPIA CON TIMOSINA IN PAZIENTI IMMUNOSOPPRESSI CON GRAVI INFEZIONI VIRALI
Editorial to the Special Issue “Clinical Immunology in Italy, with Special Emphasis to Primary and Acquired Immunodeficiencies: A Commemorative Issue in Honor of Prof. Fernando Aiuti”
Fernando Aiuti (Figure 1), born in Urbino on 8 June 1935, suddenly died on 9 January 2019, leaving a great void not only among his family members and those who knew him and appreciated his great humanity and acute intelligence, but in the entire immunological scientific community [...]
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