2021 is the year of the 100th anniversary of the first administration of the Bacillus Calmette - Guérin (BCG) to a human being. It was the start of a long journey of the world’s most widely used vaccine and is today the oldest vaccine still in use. As of today, more than 4 billion children have been vaccinated with BCG to protect them against tuberculosis. However, over the years it became apparent that BCG has also interesting non-specific effects. As such, it is able to provide protection against various heterologous infectious and non-infectious diseases and is widely used to treat...
Save the date: Keystone (Virtual) Symposium on Maternal-Fetal Newborn Immunity: October 28-29
September 06th 2021 - 10:21
Worldwide, deaths from adverse pregnancy outcomes of preterm birth (PTB) and stillbirth (SB) represent the longest, deadliest pandemic in human history. Neonatal infection (e.g. sepsis) is the main cause of death for children under 5 years; with premature babies being especially susceptible to infection. While the final common pathway for SB, PTB and neonatal sepsis is associated with aberrant inflammation in the maternal-fetal dyad, lack of insight into the underlying mechanisms has hampered identification of effective upstream preventative or downstream therapeutic interventions. A focus on...
New Pre-print: Functional reprogramming of monocytes in acute and convalescent severe COVID-19 patients
August 20th 2021 - 11:18
Considerable advances have been made in the last months in understanding the contribution of the immune system to the pathology induced by SARS-CoV2. Here, Elisa BRAUNS from the group of Stanislas Goriely assessed the short and long-term impact of the infection on the function and the molecular features of circulating monocytes. They demonstrate that severe infection is associated with major alterations of the capacity of monocytes to produce cytokines in response to stimulation by various TLR ligands. However, this immune paralysis was not persistent as it was followed in the next months by...
New publication on the role of T follicular helper cells in breast cancer
August 20th 2021 - 11:02
In this article published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the group of Karen Willard-Gallo explores the mechanisms leading to the formation of active Tertiary Lymphoid Structures (TLS) in breast cancer. Analysis of active versus inactive TLS in untreated patients revealed that the former are associated with positive clinical outcomes. They explore the role of tumor-infiltrating Follicular Helper (Tfh) and Regulatory T cells (Tfr) in this process and show that these cells represent a potential key target of PD1/PDL1 blockade.
New article on the response of residents from nursing homes to Sars-Cov2 mRNA vaccine published in Clinical Infectious disease
June 17th 2021 - 12:28
En septembre 2020 était lancée l’étude PICOV dans 26 centres de soins pour personnes âgées en Belgique. L’objectif de cette étude était de déterminer dans quelle mesure les personnes, personnel et résidents, ayant été préalablement infectées par SARS-CoV-2 étaient protégées de nouvelles infections. Après le début de la campagne de vaccination en janvier 2021, une deuxième question importante a été ajoutée au projet, à savoir si la réponse immunitaire au vaccin COVID-19 était différente chez les personnes préalablement infectées par SARS-CoV-2 par rapport aux...
1st Summer School in Immuno-Oncology organized by the Institut Cancer et Immunologie (ICI) and CIVIS
February 11th 2021 - 11:38
The ICI Summer School, edition 2021, all in English, is designed for international PhD and master’s students in life sciences, medicine, and computer science who are seeking to further their knowledge and skills in immuno-oncology research using the latest analytical methods. The Summer School will present recent technological breakthroughs that unravel the complexities of biological systems at the single-cell level, opening an avenue for the understanding of tumor and immune cell heterogeneity and next generation discovery of biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
In autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), the balance between regulatory mechanisms and misguided immune cells attacking the body is often shifted in favour of auto-reactive cells. Manipulating the immune response to restore this balance and enhance regulatory functions is therefore a central paradigm in the search for MS therapies. We identified a specific signalling pathway, triggered by a receptor named CD27 that could be a target for such manipulation. By stimulating this receptor, we were able to reduce the activity of harmful auto-reactive cells and enhance the function of...
Tristetraprolin (TTP) is an RNA-binding protein that is known to play a critical role in the resolution of inflammation through the destabilisation of key cytokine transcripts, such as that encoding TNF. Furthermore, decreased expression or function of TTP is consistently observed in many human malignancies. Using loss or gain of function approaches, Assiya Assabban and her colleagues from the lab of Stan Goriely provide in vivo evidence that TTP controls key oncogenic events during skin tumorigenesis, such as the EGFR pathway. These data strongly support the notion that deregulation of...
Recent publication : Hepatocarcinoma Induces a Tumor Necrosis Factor-Dependent Kupffer Cell Death Pathway That Favors Its Proliferation Upon Partial Hepatectomy
December 01st 2020 - 07:45
Partial hepatectomy is one of the best treatment for Hepatocellular carcinoma. However, a significant amount of patients undergoes a recursion of the disease that could be accelerated by the surgery-associated inflammation. Using preclinical model, Jean-François Hastir, in the team of Véronique Flamand, brings new evidence on the link between hepatectomy-induced Kupffer cell death and local inflammation that contributes to tumor progression. He discovered that primary hepatocellular carcinoma induces the switch from the TNF-α-RIPK3-caspase8 dependent Kupffer cell apoptosis to a...
