Scandinavian Journal of Immunology

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) refer to a group of immature myeloid cells with potent immunosuppressive capacity upon activation by pathological conditions. Because of their potent immunosuppressive ability, MDSCs have garnered extensive attention in the past few years in the fields of oncology, infection, chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases. Research on MDSCs in liver diseases has gradually increased, and their potential therapeutic roles will be further explored. This review presents a summary of the involvement and the role played by MDSCs in liver diseases, thus identifying their potential targets for the treatment of liver diseases and providing new directions for liver disease-related research...

New technologies assist re-evaluation of hypotheses on generation of immune cell repertoires and distinctions of self from non-self. Findings include positive correlations between peptide propensities to aggregate and their binding to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins. This recalls the hypothesis that foreign proteins may homoaggregate in host cytosols prior to releasing their peptides (p) to form pMHC complexes. Clues to this included aggregation-related phenomena associated with infections (rouleaux formation, pyrexia, certain brain diseases)...

The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) vaccine efficacy and immunogenicity in the immunocompetent population are well established. However, in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients, because of their use of immunosuppressive medication, the immunogenicity of these severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines remains suboptimal. Both BNT162b2 and mRNA1273 have been used for some time, but their immunogenicity has not been directly compared in this immunocompromised patient group. We performed a post-hoc analysis of a previous prospective cohort study...

Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS) is a rare monogenic autoimmune disease that primarily affects the brains of children patients. Its main clinical features include encephalatrophy, basal ganglia calcification, leukoencephalopathy, lymphocytosis and increased interferon-α (IFN-α) levels in the patient's cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum. AGS may be caused by mutations in any one of nine genes (TREX1, RNASEH2A, RNASEH2B, RNASEH2C, SAMHD1, ADAR1, IFIH1, LSM11 and RNU7-1) that result in accumulation of self-nucleic acids in the cytoplasm or aberrant sensing of self-nucleic acids...

Malnourished children are susceptible to an increased risk of mortality owing to impaired immune functions. However, the underlying mechanism of altered immune functions and its interaction with malnutrition is poorly understood. This study investigates the immune function and evaluates the effect of a particular nutritional intervention on the immune cells of undernourished children. Stunted (LAZ <-2) and at-risk of being stunted (length-for-age Z-scores, LAZ <-1 to -2) children aged between 12 and 18 months were enrolled and were provided with the daily nutritional intervention of one egg and 150 mL cow's milk for 90 days...

T cells synthesize a large number of proteins during their development, activation, and differentiation. The build-up of misfolded and unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum, however, causes endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Thus, T cells can maintain ER homeostasis via endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation, unfolded protein response, and autophagy. In T cell-mediated diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren's syndrome, type 1 diabetes and vitiligo, ER stress caused by changes in the internal microenvironment can cause disease progression by affecting T cell homeostasis...

Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent diagnosed cancer among women. Herceptin blocks the effects of Her-2 and tumour cell growth. Despite many achievements using Herceptin in Her-2+ invasive BC treatment, there are treatment failures and resistances. The signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is persistently activated in BC and is associated with immune suppression and tumour cell proliferation. We evaluated whether STAT3 inhibition could increase Herceptin impact on in vitro reduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors and polarize T cells to a protective immune response...

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) represent the cornerstone of the current treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the occurrence of concomitant infections might hamper success. All consecutive patients with advanced NSCLC who started ICIs as a first- or second-line therapy from January 1, 2017 to June 30, 2020 were retrospectively evaluated. The occurrence of infectious events during ICIs was correlated with clinical characteristics, including previous Cytotoxic Chemotherapy (CC), occurrence of immune-related-adverse-events (irAEs)...

This is a report from a one-week workshop held in Athens, Greece in July of 2022. The workshop aimed to identify emerging concepts relevant to the fundamentals of immune regulation and areas for future research. Theories of immune regulation emphasize the role of T cell help or co-stimulation (signal 2). The workshop participants considered how new data on the characteristics of agonist antigens, the role of the antigen receptor signals (signal 1) in driving fate decisions, the effect of energetics on immunity and a better understanding of class-control in the immune response, may impact theories of immune regulation...

Adiponectin and leptin are adipokines, secreted by white adipose tissue (WAT), which play an important role in energy homeostasis. Some evidence has shown that adipokine-producing adipose cells present in the bone marrow (BM) appear to exert an influence on hematopoiesis and B cell development. Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is one of the most common inborn errors of immunity in humans. In CVID, numerical and/or functional defects of B cells and their precursors result in hypogammaglobulinemia, usually Immunoglobulin (Ig) A and IgG...

BACKGROUND: C-reactive protein (CRP) is lower in patients who carry the apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 allele variant (APOEε4) of the APOE gene. This could however be explained by other factors observed in APOEε4 carriers, such as lower body mass index (BMI), possibly less diabetes and more use of statins, all associated with CRP concentrations. OBJECTIVES: To assess the association between CRP and APOEε4 stratified by BMI, statin use and diabetes...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system and the leading cause of progressive neurological disability in young adults. It decreases the patient's lifespan by about 10 years and affects women more than men. No medication entirely restricts or reverses neurological degradation. However, early diagnosis and treatment increase the possibility of a better outcome. To identify new MS biomarkers, we tested the expression of six potential markers (P2X4, P2X7, CXCR4, RGS1, RGS16 and VAV1) using qPCR in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of MS patients treated with interferon β (IFNβ), with glatiramer acetate (GA) or untreated...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic underlines a persistent threat of respiratory tract infectious diseases and warrants preparedness for a rapid response. At present, COVID-19 has had a serious social impact and imposed a heavy global burden on public health. The exact pathogenesis of COVID-19 has not been fully elucidated. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, a renewed attention has been brought to Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Available data and new findings have demonstrated that the interaction of human TLRs and SARS-CoV-2 is a vital mediator of COVID-19 immunopathogenesis...

Efficient anti-viral responses of CD8+ T cells require signals that promote their effector cell differentiation, that are mainly provided by dendritic cells (DCs). Mast cells (MCs) are key drivers of DC maturation, but also influence their migration and antigen presenting properties and therefore indirectly mediate CD8+ T cell activation. MCs initiate innate immune responses at pathogen entry sites, promote the development of adaptive immune responses after infection, and release mediators including chemokines that recruit and activate immune cells including T cells during viral infections...

In the last 20 years, discoveries about the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) protein and its critical role in immune tolerance have provided fundamental insights into understanding the molecular basis of autoimmunity. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the effect of AIRE on immunological tolerance and the characteristics of autoimmune diseases in Autoimmune Polyendocrinopathy-Candidiasis-Ectodermal Dystrophy (APECED), which is caused by biallelic AIRE mutations. A better understanding of the immunological mechanisms of AIRE deficiency may enlighten immune tolerance mechanisms and new diagnostic and treatment strategies for autoimmune diseases...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Liver cytosol antibody type 1 (anti-LC1) is reported to be a marker of type 2 autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), a type of autoimmune liver disease (AILD). However, anti-LC1 is not entirely disease-specific, and its clinical value in other hepatic diseases has not been well elucidated. Our study aimed to explore the associations between the diagnoses and outcome of decompensated cirrhosis or liver failure (DC/LF) in patients positive for anti-LC1. A total of 157 patients positive for anti-LC1 were included in our final analysis...

The progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) involves multifactor, multistep interactions. High expression of interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R) plays an important role in the occurrence and development of tumours, but the regulatory mechanism of IL-6R expression and its function in HCC have not been fully defined. Western blot was used to evaluate the phosphorylation of key kinases in the JAK2/STAT3 pathway and the protein expression levels of related proliferation molecules, migration molecules and apoptotic molecules...

Autoimmunity is reported involving in reproductive failures, and antinuclear antibody (ANA) positivity has been regarded as a typical feature of autoimmunity. Published studies on the association of ANA with reproductive failures including infertility are controversial. The aim of this meta-analysis was to analyse whether the presence of ANA positivity increases the risk of infertility in women. We searched the PubMed and Embase databases for relevant literature without any restrictions prior to April 28, 2021...

We assessed the immunogenicity of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination by evaluating the levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG after vaccination and investigated the effect of diverse factors such as gender, age, and adverse reactions after vaccination. The study included a total of 1028 serum samples from 452 healthcare workers. SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels were assessed using the SARS-CoV-2 IgG II Quant assay. Participants completed a questionnaire regarding the intensity and duration of adverse reactions after vaccination. The seropositive rates after the first and second doses were 95...