Immunopathology & Immunotherapy

Primary Immunodeficiencies are also among the Rare diseases. Thus, please... share the communication materials about the Rare Diseases Day :)

Link to Immunological Reviews pdf: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1417386/1/imr12114.pdf

The importance of the cytoskeleton in mounting a successful immune response is evident from the wide range of defects that occur in actin-related primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs). Studies of these PIDs have revealed a pivotal role for the actin cytoskeleton in almost all stages of immune system function, from hematopoiesis and immune cell development, through to recruitment, migration, intercellular and intracellular signaling, and activation of both innate and adaptive immune responses. The major focus of this review is the immune defects that result from mutations in the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome gene (WAS), which have a broad impact on many different processes and give rise to clinically heterogeneous immunodeficiencies. We also discuss other related genetic defects and the possibility of identifying new genetic causes of cytoskeletal immunodeficiency.

About half of all subjects with common variable immune deficiency (CVID) are afflicted with inflammatory complications including hematologic autoimmunity, granulomatous infiltrations, interstitial lung disease, lymphoid hyperplasia and/or gastrointestinal inflammatory disease. The pathogenesis of these conditions is poorly understood but singly and in aggregate, these lead to significantly increased (11 fold) morbidity and mortality, not experienced by CVID subjects without these complications. To explore the dysregulated networks in these subjects, we applied whole blood transcriptional profiling to 91 CVID subjects, 47 with inflammatory conditions and 44 without, in comparison to subjects with XLA and healthy controls. As compared to other CVID subjects, males with XLA or healthy controls, the signature of CVID subjects with inflammatory complications was distinguished by a marked up-regulation of IFN responsive genes. Chronic up-regulation of IFN pathways is known to occur in autoimmune disease due to activation of TLRs and other still unclarified cytoplasmic sensors. As subjects with inflammatory complications were also more likely to be lymphopenic, have reduced B cell numbers, and a greater reduction of B, T and plasma cell networks, we suggest that more impaired adaptive immunity in these subjects may lead to chronic activation of innate IFN pathways in response to environmental antigens. The unbiased use of whole blood transcriptome analysis may provides a tool for distinguishing CVID subjects who are at risk for increased morbidity and earlier mortality. As more effective therapeutic options are developed, whole blood transcriptome analyses could also provide an efficient means of monitoring the effects of treatment of the inflammatory phenotype.

Am J Hum Genet. 2013 Nov 7;93(5):812-24. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2013.09.009. Epub 2013 Oct 17.Germline Mutations in NFKB2 Implicate the Noncanonical NF-κB Pathway in the Pathogenesis of Common Variable Immunodeficiency.Chen K, Coonrod EM, Kumánovics A, Franks ZF, Durtschi JD, Margraf RL, Wu W, Heikal NM, Augustine NH, Ridge PG, Hill HR, Jorde LB, Weyrich AS,Zimmerman GA, Gundlapalli AV, Bohnsack JF, Voelkerding KV. CONCLUSION:These findings describe germline mutations in NFKB2 and establish the noncanonical NF-κB signaling pathway as a genetic etiology for this primary immunodeficiency syndrome.

Both patients had been suffering from the blood cancer Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and after other cancer treatments had proven unsuccessful, the doctors transplanted healthy bone marrow into the patients. The hope was the transplant would help purge cancerous blood cells in favor of healthy cells, but the dangerous procedure involved a weakening of the immune system and carried with it a 15 to 20 percent chance of death.
Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113022668/hiv-aids-virus-cure-bone-marrow-transplant-120813/#5rv70JlRX8eWFD2S.99

September 30, 2014, marks the 50th anniversary of the Children’s Bureau recommendation for “the screening of all newborn infants for PKU [phenylketonuria] on a routine basis.”1 By 1968, 43 states had made screening for PKU mandatory.1 As a result of technological advances, newborn screening in the United States has been extended to as many as 37 core conditions in some states.2 As reported by Kwan and colleagues3 in this issue of JAMA, newborn screening for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) has been undertaken in 23 states and the Navajo Nation, beginning in Wisconsin in January 2008. The authors present data on more than 3 million newborns screened with a T-cell receptor excision circle (TREC) assay followed by confirmatory flow cytometry from 11 of these programs (10 states and the Navajo Nation).